In an unassuming house on a residential street in the bustling neighbourhood of Kamukunji in the Kenyan capital of Nairobi, Florence Keya sits at a desk by the door, welcoming people with a warm smile. Here, inside the Maisha Girls Safe House, she offers refuge to young girls who’ve been subjected to sexual violence, early marriage, and child labour.

A survivor of childhood sexual violence herself, Florence (pictured above) recognised the gap in support for girls like her in her community, where exploitation through domestic work, is an all too common story, and she vowed to act for change.

After Florence, known to many as Mama Flo, completed a university course in psychology, she decided to return home to dedicate her life to supporting other girls at risk of sexual abuse and human trafficking.

“I did all the healing and the walking alone, and it really affected me,” she explained. “My community needs people like me... And that is what’s moved me into actually rescuing girls who have been trafficked and offering shelter and psychosocial support, working with them and making sure they receive care and support when they’re going through the trauma,” she added.

Florence established The Maisha Girls Safe House as a non-governmental organisation in 2014. She offers girls and young women who have survived sexually-related violations a safe place to live and access to medical attention, counselling and therapy, and, crucially, the chance to be part of a family.

To-date, the NGO has provided shelter to 700 girls fleeing exploitative work situations and re-integrated more than 600 back into their home communities.

While it is not always exploitative or harmful for an adolescent to do domestic work, certain forms of child domestic labour are considered to be ‘domestic servitude’, such as when the child faces exploitative and harmful working conditions, physical and sexual abuse and long hours.

Exploitation also occurs when a child is employed at a young age, prevented from accessing education, endures emotional and development harm, or is unable to leave the job.

According to research by the Freedom Fund, a philanthropy-backed foundation dedicated to ending modern slavery, child domestic workers (CDWs) are often subject to physical and emotional abuse, under the guise of ‘discipline’ - when their work or behaviour was not deemed acceptable. Examples of this discipline included slapping, being hit with an object, scolding or the withdrawal of privileges.

Sexual abuse also happens - although it is rarely reported – exposing CDWs to physical and psychological harm, unwanted pregnancies, and sexually transmitted diseases. 

In Kenya, child domestic work is estimated to be the second largest contributor to child labour after agriculture. With poverty the major driver, children are frequently forced to leave school to earn money to sustain the family, helping to feed younger siblings and paying rent.

Yet, the practice remains largely hidden behind closed doors, and a lack of clarity within Kenyan legal and policy frameworks only exacerbates the risks of exploitation of domestic workers.

Many of the girls Florence meets have come across the border into Kenya from Uganda and Tanzania – some illegally - desperate to make a living. She says many just accept their plight for what it is and succumb to pressures to support their families. “When you are a girl and that is what surrounds you, and then you come into a situation where you are thinking that this is what I'm supposed to be, or this is all I'm supposed to be doing,” she explained.

“And when you grow up a little bit, your family looks at you as someone who needs to provide also for the family,” she added, saying there was a lot of pressure on young girls to do right by their families.

In addition to the protection and rehabilitation offered to the girls, Florence and her team provide skills training and education, presenting the girls with much-needed alternative employment opportunities.

Organisations like Maisha Girls play a vital role in supporting some of society’s most vulnerable people, but local, survivor-led organisations are often under-resourced or systematically marginalised.

The Freedom Fund began supporting The Maisha Girls Safe House in 2023. It makes a point of working more closely with grassroots NGOs, providing flexible funding to small organisations that are typically overlooked by traditional philanthropy and development funders due to being deemed “too risky” or “niche”.

In the ten years since its founding, the Freedom Fund has funded and partnered with more than 225 frontline organisations who have directly impacted 1.65 million people.

“Our local partners know the context, are trusted by communities and can work in coalition to advance the rights of those who are most at risk of exploitation,” explained CEO, Nick Grono.

“Shifting power to frontline partners is a core principle of our work. By collaborating with grassroots leadership and providing flexible funding, donors can be pivotal in driving change and addressing exploitation in the most marginalised communities,” he added.

An example of this can be found in Ethiopia, where close work with partners revealed young Ethiopians were falsifying documents to be able to travel to the MENA region to find work, and then finding themselves highly vulnerable to abuse.

A new digitised system for overseas employment is now looking to reduce the risk of forged documentation and should help protect children from exploitation in domestic work.

Back in Kenya, 18-year-old Flavian stands in front of a packed community hall, beaming widely as she addresses rows of fellow hairdressing and beauty graduates, telling them her story. It’s a new-found confidence after a tough childhood.

Flavian’s father died when she was four and when his family turned their back on her mother and younger siblings, she was sent to live and work for an uncle. She left after his wife abused her but with her mother ill and unable to work, Flavian took another exploitative job in a private house.

Thanks to Maisha Girls Safe House, Flavian was able to get out of domestic servitude, and resume her education and now hopes to work in beauty and hairdressing to support herself.

“I really thank Maisha Girls,” she said. “There are many girls who are suffering and people who are going through violation like I did… I had nobody to speak to - but Maisha Girls, they gave me opportunity. They acted as a family to me. I knew what family meant. I never had that family love. That parental love, because my mom was very sick and I had to take care of her as the eldest.”

And she added: “Because of Maisha Girls, I discovered that I had my own rights, including to an education, and now I feel very good because I’m not in that fear anymore.”

Maisha Girls founder Florence knows she has a big job on her hands but she is confident with more awareness, there will be less exploitation.  

“There will be an end to this,” she said, resolutely. “More people are becoming aware and understanding that this type of trafficking and domestic work for children is a violation.” - PA