About New Scent
Family Profile
New Scent Centre which is a rescue centre for girls from the streets and vulnerable homes with a special focus on those that have been sexually abused, sexually trafficked or forced into incestuous relationships. Our vision is to see a healed Society while our mission is to offer institutionalized services to rape and sexually assaulted survivors; community outreaches for prevention, sensitization and awareness creation on sexual violence as a form of Gender Based Violence, alcoholism and substance abuse in pursuit of a healed and restored society. The major objective for the New Scent Centre is to restore dignity, honor, self-worth, livelihood and a measure of normalcy to girls and women who have suffered rape and sexual assault as a form of Gender-Based violence.
Location of the Project
Although Gender Based Violence is an issue that cuts across all regions in Kenya and beyond; the New Scent Centre recognizes the need to start small. Therefore, this project is now located in a village called Isinga,in Kangundo sub-county within the larger Machakos County of Kenya. This community is situated approximately 70 kilometres from Nairobi to the East. Tala and Kangundo are cosmopolitan towns; though to some, these are mere marketplaces with main market days scattered within the days of the week.
In response to God’s calling to rescue and aid in the healing of rape victims, and to the need in the society, New Scent Rescue Shelter was started in 2015, 8th of June by Flora Mwikali. This day saw eleven (11) girls, with seven (7) of them getting to school for the first time in their lives, while the others had dropped out of school. On 8th of July the girls were fully taken in after discovering that though we had tried to talk to some of their mothers, they were not taken care of and went back to the streets for abuse and fending for self.
The New Scent helps to affirm the dignity to these former street girls who had been abused in all ways besides the harshness of street life. They survived mainly by sleeping with men who would buy them little food and have sex with them in return. A group of them slept in the sand heaps for lack of a place to sleep and this served as a room as well where some of the men would lay with the girls, while others spend their nights in trash bins within the market. Some of the other girls who were not in the streets were being abused at their homes especially by their fathers or were at risk. Incest is a real problem. It is important to mention that the New Scent has cleaned Tala Market of all street girls from streets, unless those that have to the streets in the very recent past.
Currently, the New Scent Centre is a home to forty-nine children (49). All but two (2) are girls. Out of the 49, 11 of them are orphaned, 5 are born to mentally ill mothers, of whom does not even know where they are now, because they were been taken care of by their grandma. An 85-year old grandma. 98% of these girls have been sexually abused or were being trafficked.
The children at the New Scent Centre are aged three (3) to twenty (20) years of age. God has built a decent home for them in the recent past. All the girls are taken to school and all their basic needs provided for in the best way possible within the limited means. These girls hail from the Matungulu and Kangundo sub-counties of the Machakos County.
Our immediate needs are: –
- Food & Shelter
- Clothing
- Education
- Counseling services
- Sanitary towels
- Treatment & Medication
- Administration costs
Besides the everyday or recurring needs;
We have been renting the school where the girls in primary school go to school. We tried getting them to a school in the neighborhood when we started but they were constantly re-stigmatized besides the fact the school was not considerate of the fact that most of them had begun schooling when they past the age of starting school and so their ability to grasp what was being taught. So, we ended up starting our own school by the name Harufu Mpya Academy. Harufu Mpya is Swahili loosely translated from New Scent. The owner of the school wants it back from the end of this year. As in all places, this year school was shut down, so we haven’t used the facility from sometime in March. We now have to trust God to build us a school before 2021 for the kids to be able to continue their learning. The school had become a feeding program for even children from the community, some of them extremely needy that the cup porridge and a lunch they would have in school would be the only meal they would have in a day. Now, we need a school constructed. Good enough we had the building drawings approved by the necessary officials and now we just await God’s provision and hope that in January we will have a place to the children. Please pray for us on this need.
Secondly, we have boys who are being sodomised, and the issue is rarely talked about for different reasons. Since we have a property, and we don’t have resources to build for them a hostel, we are trusting God to provide for the same need again so that the children taken care of as much as possible.
Thirdly, we begun our own services on the 14th of January, 2018. This was necessitated by the need to ground the children in God’s Word, and the fact that the few churches we attempted attending we ended up being branded like needy, or dirty, or we went for tea, or something. Beginning our own services, and calling our church New Scent Grace Chapel has really helped not only outsiders but also people from the community in the spiritual sense of it. We have been meeting in our own Dining Hall, and it is tricky having outsiders coming to the home of the children. Before Covid-19 we used to meet in the school compound where we are now being asked to leave by the end of this year. We need a structure that we could be meeting for prayers and services. This is another of the needs that we request that you’d pray for us.
In case you require more information, please feel free to ask. Visit our website as well in www.newscentcentreint’l.org
God bless you.
Truly,
Flora Mwikali
Director, New Scent Centre Int’l.
Core Objectives
1. To restore dignity, honor, self-worth, livelihood and a measure of normalcy to women who have suffered rape and sexual assault as a form of gender-based violence in Kenya, East, and Central African region.
2. To assist in psycho-social healing and endeavor to restore dignity, honor, self-worth and a measure of normalcy to women infected with HIV/AIDs resulting from rape, sexual assault and abuse of drugs in the Kenya, East and Central African region.
3. To aid in the biopsychosocial-spiritual support aimed at treating and rehabilitating women alcoholics and drug abusers in the Kenya, East and Central African region so as to ensure restoration of their dignity, honor, self-worth and a measure of normalcy.
The Founder and C.E.O
Credentials: –
Bth, MDiv Christian Education, DMin (ON-GOING); besides studies in the areas of Alcoholism and substance abuse and Project Management.
New Scent Centre International is an organization that seeks restoration of dignity to victims of Gender-Based Violence and helps them transit to survivors, with a special focus on those that are sexually abused in every way, and a future plan of working with women alcoholics and substance abusers.
The name “New Scent” was given to me by the Lord one early morning as I was doing my devotions and was asking the Lord what the name of the organization He was asking me to make would be called. I heard the name get dropped in my head and I put it down in a notebook immediately. The Lord said that He wanted me to go and give a new fresh breathe of life to those that had experienced abuse and especially sexual abuse. Years after, as I registered the organization I was sure of the name. So in 2012 February, the New Scent Centre International was registered.
Despite having done a project with women in partnership with another organization, the Lord kept pushing me to start rescuing girls. At first, I thought big girls but the reality on the ground turned out different. After the program with women in 2014, I was in prayer and was asking God what He wanted me to do because He had made it clear that what I had done was not exactly what He was calling me to. My heart was not at peace at all. My birthday is 25th May. In 2015, through my birthday I took some days to pray and fast as I asked the Lord to lead me to what I’d do with the calling He had placed in my heart. On the 3rd day of my prayers the Lord’s voice was clear when He said: “Enough of talking, it is time to act.” I asked Him, “But Lord I have been praying for funds and I have not gotten anything?” He said, “Use what you have.” No, when you have walked with the Lord, you know His voice; you know when He has commanded and when it can be a discussion point. I knew this was not a discussion point. The Master had spoken, and I was ready to obey at all costs. I just didn’t know how tough the costs would be.
When the Lord said I use what I have, all I had was my rent. This is what I used to bring eleven girls to school on the 8th of June, 2015. This marked the beginning of the story of the New scent Centre. In the midst of tough times, being auctioned and homeless for a week after starting the ministry, we have continued to experience God’s love, grace, and power. Each day brings its own good. The challenges fuel our faith and total dependence on God. The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Elijah, has shown Himself faithful in the midst of so many things.