Safe space for sexually abused men & Afro-Masculinity Podcast

At the onset of Covid-19, we experienced rise in rape and domestic violence in Kenya. The Ministry of Health reported at least 5,000 rape cases have been recorded since mid March, many of them involving girls aged under 18 years.

The country has witnessed a 7% increase in the number of all forms of violent incidents from March to June compared to a similar period last year. It is worse in some counties and children below 18 bear the greatest burden as they comprise of 70% of the 5000 survivors with 5% being male.

Of the 5% reported male cases, there is potentially a bigger number that is unreported. Men generally fear speaking up due to stigma and fear of emasculation. And even those who do are not favoured by the poor infrastructure in place to help them with their psychological wounds.

95% of the perpetrators in the 5000 reported cases are men.

I hence opened an online safe space for men who have been raped and sexually abused even previously in their lives. The response has been great. So far, 25 of them are part of it. We're using storytelling to create safety and everyone has space to humanize their experience since it's the first time for majority of them to be in such a community. The goal is to later create physical safe houses and wellness centres for them. I provide them with resources and tools to help them cope, including patient referral to partner mental health organisations I work with for counseling and therapy.

Since there is little to no information about the models of healthy masculinity, I began a podcast in April that tackles the complexities of African Masculinities; from culture, religion, politics, to historical underpinnings of what informs the African man's perceptions of himself and his environment, and how these perceptions affect the day to day on-goings of his country and the African continent in terms of economy and social health.

Find the podcast here: www.soundcloud.com/afromasculinitypodcast

It takes incredible investment of time researching for information as not much has been written about African masculinity. My aim is to get men curious about who they are seeing that their socialization largely contributes to a myriad of the mental health cases we are witnessing today, and to help advance research for better policies in the understanding of sexual and reproductive health and rights.

I'm passionate about this work out of personal experiences that affected my childhood and adulthood, that compelled me to want to understand masculinity in depth that I could share with African men and the world. Having grown up in a violent home with an abusive father, men have always made me curious. I've always wanted to understand why they are who they are and these projects are making me help other men get their answers even as I continue to understand masculinity better.

I am in the process of beginning a TV show to visualize the podcast where I'll be interviewing men from all walks of life about their lives. This will require me to pay for production and other related logistics.

As a result of my emotional, mental and physical investments in these duties, it is difficult to do any other work and here's where I am asking for your support. I want to concentrate on this without worrying for bills, movement and other miscellaneous facilitation.

But even as you donate, I would propose that we become friends and possibly develop a community from this as we get to know each other, if possible, share stories and other resources. Possibly a life long partnership beyond the money. Relationships mean a lot to me.

Thank you so much for your kindness.