We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Brittanie Richardson. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Brittanie below.

Brittanie, appreciate you joining us today. Let’s kick things off with talking about how you serve the underserved, because in our view this is one of the most important things the small business community does for society – by serving those who the giant corporations ignore, small business helps create a more inclusive and just world for all of us.

The greatest accomplish of my life has been raising my girls. I met them ten years ago when I arrived in Kenya as a volunteer. I had heard about the rampant child sexual exploitation going on in the coast of Kenya, so I came to see for myself and see what I could do to help. Almost as soon as I landed I began to meet girls who were having to endure sexual violence just to survive; to be raped or otherwise sexually exploited just to get the equivalent of 50 American cents to buy food or clean water or pay the cost of going to school. I became aware of the terror and toxic relationship between poverty and sexual exploitation and the way young girls were being imprisoned by it. It wasn’t just an issue for me anymore. It wasn’t just a cause I believed in. These were actually people. Young people. Young girls. And as a childhood sexual abuse survivor myself, I felt compelled to do what I could to help these girls. I felt compelled to help them escape. And that’s what I did.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

My entire life I have had a soft heart. I have been sensitive to suffering. I have been drawn to help alleviate it. So it’s not too surprising that I have ended up where I am now. Although I am originally from Atlanta, GA in the United States, for the past 10 years I have been living, loving and working in Kenya. I have been running my non profit called Art and Abolition. Art and Abolition serves young girls in Kenya who have survived sexual violence as a result of poverty. We do this through education, art therapy, psychotherapy, economic empowerment, and foster care.

I got into this work hesitantly. As as sexual abuse survivor myself, I was a bit afraid to work with other survivors. I knew it would force me to face my own past. But all of that changed when I was in Mozambique. I was at a training school for people who wanted to do social impact work all over the world. One morning we were in a worship session and I had a vision.

I was taken into a vision where I was inside the heart of Jesus. Jesus asked if I wanted to go into His favorite room. I said yes. He opened the door and it was filled with kids. Extremely happy kids playing, jumping rope, blowing bubbles, playing hop scotch, laughing. As soon as the kids saw Jesus walk in the door they screamed with joy and hugged his neck and jumped all over him pulling him to come play with them. They also greeted me and pulled me to come play. The joy in the room was tangible. It was an intense joy like I’ve never felt before. It was a free joy. It brought tears to my eyes. We played with the children for a while and then Jesus looked at me and said “do you want to stay in this room with me?” I laughed at the question because I found it ridiculous. The joy I was feeling was the greatest joy I’d ever known. Of course I wanted to stay. So I smiled and responded “yes”. We continued to play with the kids playing chase and hand games and having the time of our lives. Then Jesus looked at me again this time with a little sorrow in His eyes which confused me. He asked me again “Do you want to stay in this room with me? ” I replied desperately “YES!”. We played with the kids more, laughing and having a great time. Then Jesus turned to me with tears in His eyes and asked me a third time “Are you sure you want to stay in this room with me?” I felt compassion and solidarity as I replied for the third time “YES!” Immediately I was turned to the other side of the room.

It scared me. It was pitch black in there and it was completely void of joy. Jesus walked me over there. At the entrance there was a set of keys and he picked them up. We walked into the room and the darkness was so heavy you almost had to crawl. The atmosphere was thick with sadness and injustice. It made me nauseous and my first instinct was to try to find the exit. We walked deeper inside and came to a wall. The wall was as tall as you could see and as wide as you could see. As we got closer I realized the wall was lined with cages. And as we got even closer I realized there were little girls in each cage. They were so scared and looked like they had been in the cages for a long time. I got close to one and the girl immediately shuffled to the back of her cage in fear. But then Jesus came next to me and she was no longer afraid. Jesus put the keys in my hand and I put the key inside the lock and then my hand turned into the key. I unlocked that first cage and as soon as the girl stepped out of the cage she came out completely restored to her dignity, all cleaned up, absolutely beautiful and confident and she started dancing with Jesus. I kept unlocking cages and each time the same thing would happen:the girl would come out looking free, dignified, and happy as she danced with Jesus. Then I heard: “I’m calling you to bring orphans into family and slaves into freedom”. I opened my eyes and heard the leader of the school who we affectionately call “Mama Heidi” on the microphone say, “We need people who are willing to give their lives to see the child sex trade in Kenya ended!”. Strange.

I pretty much couldn’t talk for the rest of the day. I was in a state of shock. I’d had many visions in my life, many of which I do believe came from the Divine as a message, but I had never experienced anything as powerful and as real to me as The Vision. Something had happened. I didn’t know what, but it was intense. All I could do was oscillate between crying, sitting in silence, or laying prostrate on the ground. I knew then that I was called and the fear dissipated.

Just a couple days later I found myself buying a ticket to Kenya. I remember that the one way ticket cost $300 and I only had $400 so I thought, “I really hope I like it there because I have no money to leave!” That was over a decade ago, and I am still here doing the work.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

Continuing for all of these years has not been easy. I have been heavily impacted by the intensity of this work. The hardest part was being under funded. There were so many times where we just didn’t have enough money to continue and I didn’t see how we could keep taking care of our girls. Sometimes I didn’t even know where money for basic needs was going to come from. But my love for them and my belief in their right to be free kept me going.

Have you ever had to pivot?

I am actually at a time of pivoting right now. Most of our girls (all but 3) are now finished with high school. Our goal was to get them through high school and we did it! Now my focus is changing. I have seen that although a high school diploma is almost mandatory and undeniably helpful, in most cases it is not enough to equip the girls to be financially stable. What happens after high school in a country with an unbelievably high employment rate? After high school lots of people just go back into the poverty they were experiencing before school. Lots are jobless and stuck. I don’t want that for my girls. So my focus is pivoting. I am now focusing on building a fund that will support them post high school; where they can access funds for college or business school or entrepreneurship endeavors or whatever the next step for them may be. I want to walk with them from having a high school diploma to actually earning a living wage. For all of them they will be the first in their families to do so.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.artandabolition.org
• Instagram: @artandabolition
• Facebook: Art and Abolition
• Linkedin: Brittanie Richardson