Safe house
Children now make up 39% of the world's refugee population — a far greater share than their proportion of humanity as a whole. (Source: UNHCR, Global Trends Report, 2025) When those children are separated from their families, the risk compounds sharply: studies suggest up to three in four children who flee alone experience violence, sexual abuse, or exploitation by criminal networks. (Source: Help Refugees Now / UNHCR, citing UN data on unaccompanied minors)
In Kenya specifically, refugees are generally confined to camps with restricted movement, which the U.S. State Department identifies as a factor that heightens vulnerability to trafficking — with children among those “especially vulnerable.” (Source: U.S. Department of State, 2025 Trafficking in Persons Report – Kenya)
The first and only of its kind in Kenya, our Safe House is a transitional shelter that provides protection and recovery to unaccompanied and separated refugee girls and their children (18 years and below) who have faced or are facing serious protection and security situations, where prior interventions to resolve those concerns have failed. We offer the young women who come through our Safe House doors a secure space to heal, a holistic set of services, and a dedicated community of support. RefuSHE’s Safe House is a registered CCI (Children’s Charitable Institution) under the State Department for Children Services, Ministry of Gender, Culture and Children.
Security & Protection
Located in a safe location in Nairobi, the Safe House supports an average of 40 young women and children each year and is managed by Case Management staff 24 hours a day. To protect residents and guard the Safe House’s secure position as a transitional shelter for vulnerable young refugees, RefuSHE employs onsite, around-the-clock security guards and changes the location of the house every three to four years.
100%
OF SAFE HOUSE RESIDENTS REPORT FEELING AN INCREASE IN PERSONAL SAFETY AFTER ARRIVAL
A critical outcome given that vulnerable groups, including girl mothers and children in Kenya’s refugee community, remain at heightened risk of forced labor, child marriage, and transactional sex. (Source: European Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid Operations, “A Lifeline for Refugees: Protecting the Most Vulnerable in Kenya,” 2025)
Holistic Support
All residents receive intensive case management support, including counseling, health care, legal aid, family tracing, childcare, and life skills classes. In addition to the support provided by the Safe House’s nurse, RefuSHE partners with local hospitals in Nairobi to provide medical care to Safe House residents and their children. All residents receive essential personal care and hygiene items, clothing and bedding support, and other basic necessities that support health, comfort, protection, and dignity during their stay at the safe house. Approximately half of RefuSHE’s Safe House residents are mothers who also receive diapers for their young children.
Community Cultivation
Refugee children separated from their families face not only physical risk but also a lasting loss of identity and belonging — a factor increasingly recognised as central to psychosocial recovery, alongside safety and material needs. (Source: UNHCR Resettlement Handbook, “Children and Adolescents at Risk”)
In addition to meeting girls’ immediate and essential needs, the Safe House offers healing through community and kinship. The refugee girls in our care have been separated or orphaned from their own families and often feel isolated or alone when they arrive in Nairobi. Safe House residents reside in dorm-style housing and may be paired with a “sibling” to foster familial closeness. Residents are encouraged to embrace the diversity of cultural and religious backgrounds in the Safe House through the celebration of different holidays and cultural days in which girls cook food from their countries of origin.
Occupational Activities
The Safe House program works to promote psychosocial healing by structuring a daily routine of creative arts and chores. Creative arts workshops, including knitting, beading, hairdressing, and baking, help residents occupy their time, settle their minds, and develop marketable skills that they can take with them after relocating. While young mothers are occupied with skill-building and other therapies like trauma-informed yoga and Zumba, case workers and counselors engage children in developmental activities in the child-friendly space. Our Safe House team also accompanies residents on field trips with funding from our partners so girls can venture out into the community and learn in a hands-on environment.
Pathways To Safe Exits
Fewer than 5% of refugees who need resettlement to a third country actually receive it, and in 2025, only 37,000 refugees were resettled globally — a fraction of overall need. (Source: UNHCR, 2026 Projected Global Resettlement Needs report) Today, 70% of the world’s refugees live in protracted displacement — five years or more without a durable solution. (Source: UNHCR Global Trends Report, 2025)
Because resettlement is out of reach for nearly all refugees, RefuSHE prioritizes safe exit strategies grounded in local integration as the most realistic durable solution for Safe House residents. Due to the temporary nature of the shelter, our goal is to either reunify residents with their families or place them in safe, alternative care arrangements within the community. Some residents who have exited the Safe House go on to join our Girls Empowerment Program (GEP), while others pursue vocational training at local schools or start their own microenterprises. We support all Safe House residents with case management services and mental health check-ins for an additional six months after they exit, to ensure successful transitions. The length of time an individual participant stays in the Safe House depends on a variety of circumstances, but we generally support residents for six to 24 months
98%
OF SAFE HOUSE RESIDENTS WHO EXIT INTO THE COMMUNITY REPORT FEELING SAFE IN THEIR NEW LIVING ARRANGEMENTS