Photo by Natalia Jidovanu

Alumni

‘It’s a Community Problem, and it Affects All of Us’

Esther Kisaghu (SPH’06), founded a Nairobi-based domestic violence nonprofit that provides support services as well as an income-generating project that offers an opportunity for survivors to gain financial independence.

This story was originally published in Bostonia magazine

To Esther Kisaghu, Boston University was more than just a place to obtain a world-class education. It was also a refuge after leaving an almost decade-long abusive marriage in her native Kenya. And, as she earned her master’s in public health, BU would ultimately help her lay the groundwork for a nonprofit helping other Kenyans escape abuse.

Kisaghu (SPH’06) is founder of the Rose Foundation, a Nairobi-based nonprofit that aids survivors of domestic abuse and works to prevent abuse through community interventions. The foundation is named after Kisaghu’s late mother, Peninah Rose Wali, a lifelong community activist. Kisaghu is also the author of the memoir The Triumph of My Life: Domestic Violence and Society’s Thundering Silence (Xulon Press, 2014).

Domestic violence is prevalent throughout Kenyan society, Kisaghu says. 

“During COVID lockdown, we called it a ‘shadow pandemic’ because it escalated so horribly,” she says. “And it’s still a big issue—hardly a week passes without hearing about a domestic violence incident that occurred somewhere in the country.” Those are only the reported incidents, she adds: “So many cases don’t get outside a family setting.”

That’s why she started the Rose Foundation. Kisaghu’s mission is to break the cycle of abuse that permeates her culture and compels victims to suffer in silence. 

“The onus is on us to educate the masses so that they see this is a societal problem, and no longer a private matter that just affects an individual and their family,” she says. “It’s a community problem, and it affects all of us.” 

Kisaghu spoke to Bostonia about her work with the nonprofit and why helping survivors thrive after abuse matters.

How does the Rose Foundation work to prevent abuse?

Esther Kisaghu: Using the knowledge and experience that I got from Boston University, I chose multiple approaches for our strategic plan. We concentrated first on the public information approach, where we were informing the public of the extent of the domestic violence and creating awareness. The second part was the community-best approach. We’ve spent the last seven years working with domestic violence survivors in informal settlements in and around Nairobi. 

We’ve also been working on social education in three ways: the first is religious leaders training, because Kenya [is very religious] and churches are very community-based. One of the things we work to do there is turn around their thinking so that an individual’s safety is the [biggest concern], and not the breaking up of a marriage or family. We also do trainings for teen dating violence. Youth are more malleable than adults, and it’s easier to influence negative attitudes toward domestic violence in them. We want to help them model healthy relationships and understand what both abusive and unhealthy relationships look like—because unhealthy doesn’t necessarily mean abusive. 

Last is early childhood and parental skills training for parents. They’re for both the community and survivors of domestic violence. A big one there is that harsh punishment of children, like using a cane to beat them, is rampant in Kenya. We help parents look at other forms of punishment. There is evidence that there is a causal linkage between harsh punishment of children and future violence, so again, we are mitigating future violence.

What are some of the challenges you face?

In our African setting, we have centuries-old family systems that practiced domestic violence, especially in the form of wife-beating. I know this happens in the West, as well. But the patriarchal assertion that the man is head of the house and anything he does should not be challenged by the women of the house is still a big thing in Africa. Tradition is very important to Africans, and a retrogressive culture like that is going to take a long time to change. The older generation can sometimes be difficult when they attend our special education activities because they are resistant to what we’re doing.

Then the other thing is the problem of the normalization of violence. As a society, we’ve become insensitive to domestic violence issues, because they’ve happened for such a long time. That normalization makes it difficult for us to do our social behavioral activities, because people do not see violence as a huge problem in the way we see it. So, it is up to us to explain that domestic violence is not a private issue—it’s an umbrella problem that covers us all. One of the things we emphasize is that domestic violence impacts our health system and our economy. Rehabilitation from domestic violence injuries impacts the health budget, and the loss of income from victims of violence robs us of billions of shillings economically.

What are the primary ways the Rose Foundation aids survivors?

First, we have a support group for survivors. And then with that support group, we have started an income-generating project. One of the difficulties domestic violence victims have when leaving a violent environment is that, in most cases, women in sub-Saharan Africa are financially dependent on the very abusers they’re living with. We also have no government-run programs dealing with domestic violence. And the shelter structure—as in sheltering survivors in Kenya, and looking for employment for them—is all but nonexistent. We do perform rescues [of victims] sometimes, but they’re very limited, because our capacity [to house them] is very limited. 

So, we concentrate on things that are workable. The support group members mostly live in informal settlements and they come to work in our income-generating project, a tea and snacks kiosk. That translates to economic independence, which we know is a social determinant of health. We are targeting the low-income population to bring them into a place where they can access resources and generate an income. Helping others live outside abusive situations results in being healthy and building healthy relationships, and this, in turn, helps build a healthy nation.

What advice would you give someone hoping to start a social-aid organization in their community?

First and foremost, meet with community leaders and let them buy into the vision. We started our first month of working in a neighboring county with a very high rate of domestic violence by meeting with grassroots leaders who, in turn, talked to the community members and told them to support our work. And know that it is not work that is geared toward making money. I have made personal financial sacrifices—I do not earn a salary from the organization. I rely on the kind donations of churches abroad and at home for my upkeep. I model my social justice work on the work of Martin Luther King, Jr. (GRS’55, Hon.’59). But I am determined to use my knowledge, skills, and experience for domestic violence work instead of making money and living a life of comfort. This is my lifelong commitment.