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Christian Bobst Photography

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  • (2008) Children are playing in front of Father Hermann´s shelter in Katutura. The house was bought by the roman catholic church, because some church members complained about the frequent visits of the prostitutes at the Bishops residence, where Father Hermann used to have his quarter before he moved to the church at Pioneers Park. The bishop solved the problem by offering Hermann to run a daycare shelter for the prostitutes in the township.
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  • (2013) Father Hermann visits Alexia (left, with pink shirt) at her home in babylon, a district of Katutura. Alexia lives with four other women and their children, that way, they are able to protect themselves better from robbers and sexual assaults.
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  • (2013) Hanna, 37, lives at Damara 6, one of the roughest areas in Katutura. She showes her passport and explaines that a few years ago some Chinese men promised her a better life abroad and paid for this document. Father Hermann convinced her not to go and kept her from making the biggest mistake of her life, she says.
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  • (2013) Katutura is still growing. Every day hundreds of work seeking people move from the countryside to the squatter settlements in the Township of the Namibian capital.
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  • (2013)  Father Hermann offers slices of bread and butter to a woman who seeks his help at his home at the church in Pioneers Park.
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  • (2013) For many years, Hermann distributed second hand cloths among the women at the shelter. "Proper cloths are very important to get a minimum of respect in this culture, so the women will always try to dress up as good as possible, even if they have nothing. I don´t want them to spend their money on clothes, when they have hungry children to feed at home." he says.
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  • (2013) Christina (17) talks about her life at Father Hermann´s daycare facility. As soon as she had her menstruation, her mother who was an alcoholic said that she was a big girl now and forced her to make money by selling herself. She dropped out of school at the age of thirteen, ran away from home and continued to sell herself to survive. She says that she is HIV positive and four months pregnant.
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  • (2013) Father Hermann looks at a photo which shows a group of under-age children who were misused by an expat from Europe. As a consequence, most of the girls have to deal with psychological problems, many of them got involved in prostitution and have infected themself with HIV.
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  • (2013) Almost everything in the daycare needs to be chained and locked up to prevent it from being stolen. Some of the women don´t only steal, they also sell the second hand clothes  or the milk powder they get from Hermann in order to make some money for a alcohol or drugs.
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  • (2013) Father Hermann visits a sick woman at her room in Damara 6.
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  • (2013) On his way home, Father Hermann talks to a streetwalker who looks for clients at Ausspannplatz in the City of Windhoeck.
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  • (2008) At his daycare Father Hermann tries to comfort a woman who suffers from severe depression after losing her child. Many sex workers suffer from depression and suicidal thoughts, especially when they are infected with AIDS or STDs. But many of these women are not victims only.  They are used to the rough life on the streets.Some try to take advantage of the priest´s kindness, a fact that Father Hermann is well aware of.
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  • (2013) In company of a church community member, Father Hermann eats dinner at the mess hall of the church in Pioneers Park where he lives in a small apartment.
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  • (2013)  Father Hermann examines at a scan of his brain. He suffers from cerebral atrophy and diabetes. In the last two years, his strength has been fading, today he is hardly able to continue his work.
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  • (2008) Women and children rest at father Hermanns Daycare facility. They are tired, many of them walked for hours to get some food at the shelter.
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  • (2013)  Father Hermann prays before eating dinner at the mess hall of the church where he lives in a small apartment.
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  • (2013) Father Hermann walks out of the roman catholic church´s canteen at Pioneers Park.
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  • (2013) At Father Hermann´s daycare facility, Miriam talks about her  hopes to find a job to support her brothers and sisters in order to live together with them as a familiy.
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  • (2013) Amanda (33) tallks about her life at Father Hermann´s Shelter. Her parents passed away, so she grew up with her grandmother who could not afford to feed her and to pay for her schoolfees. Therfore she started to sell herself in clubs. She says that sex workers in Namibia are at very  high risk to get beaten up, thrown out of cars or even get killed by men who refuse to pay them for their services.
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  • (2013) Father Hermann buys food at a gas station´s supermarket which is close to the church where the priest lives in a two room appartment.
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  • (2008) Several women are fighting for a cigarette. Fights among the women at the shelter are not unusual and  envy is a big problem. Therefore Father Hermann has to be very careful to distribute food and clothes at his shelter equitably.
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  • Father Hermann’s shelter, November 21, 2013.  Outside the shelter some of the girls watch teit reflection in the weindscreens of Father Hermanns old Toyota.
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  • A young girl waits for customers at Ausspannplatz in the city center of Windhoeck.
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  • (2013) Father Hermann walks down the street at the center of the city of Windhoeck.
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  • (2013) After their little sister passed away, Father Hermann encouraged Cecilia (right) and her sister Maria (left) to file a lawsuit against their mother who now is in jail, but they still have to sell themselves in order to take care of their children.
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  • (2013) A woman shows her HIV medication. many people who are HIV positive don´t take their medication because it makes them vomit if they don´t have enough food in their stomach.
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  • Father Hermann’s shelter, November 22, 2013. Father Hermann examines an x-ray of a young boy at the daycare facility. The boy’s mother worries about the health-state of her son an asks for Hermann’s advice. Many women come to the shelter to be examined by Father Hermann when they or their children feel sick. If necessary, Father Hermann admits them to a doctor or to a hospital to claim an appropriate medical treatment, which would not be granted, if the women would go their on their own.
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  • (2013) Father Hermann discusses an issue with one of the women in front of the Shelter in Katutura.
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  • (2013) Father Hermann arrives at Damara 6, a district in Katutura township. The people gather very quick around the car when he arrives, they say they recognize the sound of the engine of his car even before they see it.
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  • (2008) A woman exits Father Hermanns car in Havanna, a district of Katutura. Sometimes Father Hermann drives  some women from the townships to his daycare or back. But most of them have to walk ten kilometers and more to get to his daycare.
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  • (2013) Some of the women are fixing the battery of Father Hermanns car in front of the shelter in Katutura.
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  • (2013) Father Hermann arrives at Damara 6, a district in Katutura township. The people gather very quick around the car when he arrives, they say they recognize the sound of the engine of his car even before they see it.
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  • (2013) Father Hermann walks to the homes of some of some women in Havanna, another district in Katutura, to see if they are ok.
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  • (2013) A couple of girls walk down the street  at Damara 6. They often stay together as a group. Sex workers in Katutura cannot count on the solidarity of their neighbors or relatives; they usually only get help from other girls who do the same work in order to survive.
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  • (2013) Father Hermann at his office at the shelter in Katutura.
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  • (2013) Father Hermann visits Alexia at her home in Katutura. Alexia lives with four other women and their children, so that they are able to protect themselves from robbers and sexual assaults.
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  • (2013) Father Hermann opens the shelter.
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  • (2008) For single women, life in the rough ghettos is very difficult, particularly for those with small children. Because there are few jobs, prostitution is often the only route to survival. Many become infected with diseases. Sick, weak and ostracized as whores, they have almost no chance of finding normal work and become trapped in a vicious circle.
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  • Father Hermann talks to some street walkers in a casino bar at Ausspannplatz in the city center of Windhoeck.
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  • (2013) Father Hermann rests while he visits some of the women at their homes.
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  • Because they are socially stigmatized, sex workers are frequently exposed to robbery and violence. Pamela shoes the spot where she was brutally raped by five men who tortured her with barb wire for several hours. She had been raped several time before.
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  • (2013) Hanna (37) never knew her mother or her father, never went to school and grew up on the streets. She became a sex worker at the age of 16. A few years ago some Chinese men promised her a better life abroad and paid for this document. Father Hermann convinced her not to go.
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  • (2008) A portrait of Irène at the age of eleven. Two years later she became pregnant and ran away from home. Irène tried to abort the baby with illegal pills, lost consciousness, was raped by a young man, and passed away.
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  • (2008) Whenever possible, Hermann ventured out into the townships to assist with problems or to get a sense of the conditions in which those he cares for were living. The priest talked to women and children on the street about the dangers of AIDS and other STDs. He encouraged them to get tested for AIDS and passed out condoms, even though the Catholic Church forbids it.
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  • (2013) Father Hermann in the kitchen of his small two room appartment.
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  • (2013)  Father Hermann goes for dinner at the mess hall of the church where he closby  lives in a small apartment.
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  • (2013) Cecilia, 23, is one of the girls for whom Father Hermann cares for several years already. She and her two sisters Maria and Irene were sold by their mother at the ages of 9, 10, and 11 years.
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  • (2013)  Father Hermann fixes some sandwiches for a woman who seeks his help at his home at the church in Pioneers Park.
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  • Father Hermann’s shelter, November, 2013.  A woman talkes to Father Hermann at his office to ask for some money to burry her baby that passed away. She shows Hermann the death certificate of the hospital to prove that her story is true.
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  • (2008) This image shows the "kitchen" of Winnies home. Winnie has to share the six square meters sized shack with two other girls to be able to pay the rent.
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  • Father Hermann’s Apartment, Windhoek, November 23, 2013. Father Hermann gives shelter to a woman who knocked on the door of his apartment late at night, looking for help. When in adversity, the women often come to Father Hermann’s home at the Catholic Church in Pioneers Park, Windhoek. Due to the alarming extent of his work and serious health issues the priest has more and more difficulties to keep his apartment clean and tidy.
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  • (2013) Father Hermann buys some food at a  supermarket in Windhoeck City.
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  • November 2013, Father Hermann´s daycare is half-abandoned because the priest is weakened by age and diabetes and reaches his limits. Hermann says that he will have to close the daycare soon because there is no successor and his strength is quickly fading.
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  • (2008) Father Hermann talks to a streetwalker who is looking for clients at the Ausspannplatz, a street-walkers patch in the city center of Windhoeck. This area is not safe for the women, especially not at nighttime. Sex workers can´t expect any protection from the police, because prostitution is illegal in Namibia. „When it‘s dark the ladies are wanted by many people, but during the day in parliament they want to burn them out.“ says Hermann in an interview with a local newspaper.
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  • Father Hermann holds a deeply depressed woman to comfort her. Two weeks previously she had lost her baby and been thrown out by her husband and left her to a life on the street.
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  • (2008) Women and children at Father Hermann´s shelter.
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  • (2008) The women take their babies with them to the shelter to get some food for them or to have them examined by Father Hermann when they are sick. In an emergency father Hermann would take the children or women to the hospital for proper treatment.
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  • (2013) Father Hermann at the gate of the roman catholic church at pioneers park.
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  • (2008) At his daycare facility, Father Hermann hands out milk powder to prevent small children from contracting HIV by their mothers from breastfeeding. In 2008, when this photo was taken, sex workers who registered with Hermann received a ration of food and second-hand clothing once per week. The bookkeeping of Father Hermann was always meticuluous. He knew exactly who got what and when.
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  • (2013) Hermann visits some of the women in Damara 6 at their homes.
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  • (2013) Father Hermann at his two room apartment at the roman catholic church in Pioneerspark.
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  • (2013) Father Hermann drives back home from the township while the sun sets.
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  • (2013) Father Hermann, parks his car at his home in Pioneerspark. He often works from the early morning till late in the evening.
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  • (2013)  Father Hermann counsels a woman who seeks his help at his home at the church in Pioneers Park.
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  • (2013) Even statues at the shelter have to be locked with a chain to prevent it from being stolen. Many of the women who visit Father Hermanns shelter grew up on the street and can´t resist to steal whatever they could sell for a little money.
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  • (2008) Winnie at Father Hermann´s shelter.
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  • (2008) Most women in the shelter are infected with AIDS or venereal diseases. Sick, weak and ostracized as whores, they have almost no chance of finding normal work. "We give them food once a week and a bible. This is just to keep their hopes alive." Klein-Hitpass says,
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  • (2008) Eunice at the age of 17. At that time, she was already a young mother.
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  • (2013)  Father Hermann offers slices of bread and butter to a woman who seeks his help at his home at the church in Pioneers Park.
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  • (2013) Father Hermann visits some of the women who used to come to his shelter. Some are just happy to see him, others immediately ask him for some financial support.
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  • (2013) Now that he is old and physically weak, Father Hermann harbors major worries about not being able to find a successor yet. He fears that the women and girls will have to deal with their situations by themselves once again, as he will not be able to help them much longer.
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  • For single women, life in the rough ghettos around Katatura is very difficult, particularly for those with small children. Because there are few jobs, prostitution is often the only route to survival. Many become infected with diseases. Sick, weak and ostracized as whores, they have almost no chance of finding normal work and become trapped in a vicious circle.
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  • (2013)  Father Hermann goes for dinner at the mess hall of the church where he closby  lives in a small apartment.
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  • (2013) Father Hermann talks to two young girls who offer their services at Ausspannplatz in the center of Windhoeck.
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  • (2013) Hermann visits some of the women in Damara 6 at their homes.
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  • (2008) Father Hermann poses with his old Toyota in front of the roman catholic church at Pioneers Park, where his home, a two room apartment, is located. He always has a big key chain with him, because he has to lock everything tp prevent it from getting stolen.
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  • In his tiny office, the priest advises women and girls. A recently conducted survey presents a gloomy picture: of 20 women and girls between the ages of 11 and 45 who registered with him one day, all were HIV positive. Sixteen of them sayed that they had been raped multiple times, the youngest at eight years old, with one 12-year-old having already been violated 10 times. All of those interviewed indicated they suffered from depression. Many say that they had attempted suicide more than once.
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  • (2008) Father Hermann Klein-Hitpass stood up for the weakest members of society in Namibia´s capital, Windhoek, for many decades. For the past 20 years his special focus has been on girls and women whose poverty forced them into sex work. Most of those women do not call him “Father” only because he is a priest – many say that he is like a real father to them.
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  • (2013) Father Hermann talks to some women who bake bread dough in hot oil to sell at a nearby school at Damara 6. Years ago they were also working as sex workers, but they say they are now too old to get enough clients to survive.
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