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When
Kenyan mother Trezer Achieng was 26, a
local water vendor forced her into sex -- in
front of her child
-- as 'payment' for her
overdue bill. The pain, the fear, and the shame
were so intense that she wanted to kill herself.
But she survived, and now she is working
to make it a crime to extort sex for
water. The government of Kenya is
on the verge of proposing a new law, and a
massive public outcry could push it from
saying the right thing to
doing the right thing.
Join us! |
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Dear
friends, |
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It's
insane.
All across Kenya,
vendors coerce women
and girls into paying with sex for the
water their families need to
survive.
Water is so scarce that there is
no other way to get it.
And this
extortion -- sextortion -- is
perfectly legal.
Yes,
really.
But together we can finally make
sextortion a crime and put the perpetrators
behind bars! Top civil society groups in Kenya
are working on writing a better law. They tell
us that with a massive public outcry,
the Kenyan government would agree to
help draft the proposal and champion it before
Parliament.
This is a chance for
real change! So sign now, and we will
deliver your call for action directly to the
Department of Justice and the Attorney
General. | |
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In
Kibera, an area of extreme poverty on the
outskirts of Nairobi,
studies suggest that
tens of thousands of women and girls face
sextortion. The numbers are likely
even higher because most victims are scared to
speak out. And sextortion doesn't just happen in
Kenya but all across the world.
It's very
hard to fight sextortion. Often, victims'
testimony is the only evidence but they remain
silent out of fear they won't be believed, or
will suffer public humiliation and be cast out
the their communities. But if Kenya
passes a new law, the government will unlock
powerful new tools to fight
sextortion -- including opening
new sources of funding, adding enforcement,
promoting women as water vendors, and ending
price gouging for water.
Courageous women
like Trezer are speaking up and sharing their
stories so their daughters don't have to
face the same horrors. Let's join our
voices with theirs and tell the Kenyan
government that extorting sex for water
must be made a crime! Sign
now: |
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The
Avaaz movement stands for gender equity. We've
fought for girls' education, stood in solidarity
with the women's movement in Iran, and pushed
for a groundbreaking treaty to protect women
from workplace violence. We are fortunate to be
fighting sextortion alongside the Kenya Water
and Sanitation CSOs Network (KEWASNET), the
Africa Civil Society Network for Water and
Sanitation (ANEW), the Umande Trust, and the
incredible Trezer Achieng. We share
Trezer's hope that, together, we can make sure
her daughter grows up in a world without
sextortion.
With hope and
determination,
Nate, Patricia, Antonia, Mel,
Huiting and the rest of the Avaaz team
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