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Christian Bobst Photography

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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) 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) Father Hermann walks down the street at the center of the city of Windhoeck.
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  • (2013) Father Hermann walks out of the roman catholic church´s canteen at Pioneers Park.
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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)  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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  • (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 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)  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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  • A young girl waits for customers at Ausspannplatz in the city center of Windhoeck.
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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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  • 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 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 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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  • (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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  • (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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  • (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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  • 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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  • (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) 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 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) 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) 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) Father Hermann visits a sick woman at her room in Damara 6.
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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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  • (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) 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) 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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  • (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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  • Opaganda Center, center for disabled children, Windhoeck Namibia
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  • Opaganda Center, center for disabled children, Windhoeck Namibia
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  • Opaganda Center, center for disabled children, Windhoeck Namibia
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  • Opaganda Center, center for disabled children, Windhoeck Namibia
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  • Opaganda Center, center for disabled children, Windhoeck Namibia
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  • Opaganda Center, center for disabled children, Windhoeck Namibia
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  • Opaganda Center, center for disabled children, Windhoeck Namibia
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  • Opaganda Center, center for disabled children, Windhoeck Namibia
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  • Opaganda Center, center for disabled children, Windhoeck Namibia
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  • Opaganda Center, center for disabled children, Windhoeck Namibia
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  • Opaganda Center, center for disabled children, Windhoeck Namibia
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  • Opaganda Center, center for disabled children, Windhoeck Namibia
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  • Opaganda Center, center for disabled children, Windhoeck Namibia
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  • Opaganda Center, center for disabled children, Windhoeck Namibia
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  • Opaganda Center, center for disabled children, Windhoeck Namibia
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  • Opaganda Center, center for disabled children, Windhoeck Namibia
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  • Opaganda Center, center for disabled children, Windhoeck Namibia
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  • Opaganda Center, center for disabled children, Windhoeck Namibia
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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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  • (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) 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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  • (2008) "When it is dark enough the ladies are wanted by many people, but during the day in parliament they want to burn them out." says Father Hermann. He notes, prostitutes face an immediate mortal threat of HIV infection - something the government seems unwilling to confront.
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  • (2008) The bookkeeping of father Hermann is meticuluous. He knows exactly who got what and when from him. Every day of the week, about 300 of the registered women and girls are entitled to collect some food and cloth and to stay at the centre from morning to evening.
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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) 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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  • 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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  • Sixteen-year-old Winnie stands in the entrance of the hut that she and two roommates have rented. Often, the girls are sought out and sexually assaulted by unknown men in the hut, particularly when they are drunk and defenseless. They can't protect themselves because the door has no hinge and no lock.
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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) 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) 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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  • (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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  • (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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  • (2008) Eunice at the age of 17. At that time, she was already a young mother.
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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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  • Damara 6, Katutura township (Windhoek), November 27, 2013. Father Hermann rests while some girls are doing their hair. It took a few years until the women started to trust the priest. But now many say that he is like a real father to them. He became part of the family, part of the people in the township.
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  • Trudy, (28) says that her children are her only joy in life. Because most of the men refuse to use condoms, women who sell themselves often get pregnant. Some of the women have up to ten children, often all from different fathers.
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  • Agnes was forced by her father to have sex with him at the age of 14. Her mother did not want to hear that  truth and started to drink. Later her mother even started to sell Agnes for sex to buy alcohol. Today Agnes still has to sell herself to take care for her 3 children and to send her younger sister to school. She says that she will never forgive her mother for what she did to her.
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  • Dina was chased away from home by her stepfather when she was 18 and found shelter in a friends home who was surviving on sex work. In order to buy food, Dina started to do the same thing. She is a mother to one child but says that she already lost two. 5 years ago she started to suffer from mental problems. She has to take pills in order to be mentally stable.
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  • (2013) Alexia (28) became pregnant by her father at the age of thirteen. Her relatives chased her away from home. She survived by doing sex work for more than ten years. With Father Hermann´s help, Alexia now runs a little shop that allows her to make a living. "He gave me back my dignity" Alexia says about the priest.
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  • (2013) Scholastivca (35) was abused by her uncle at the age of 12. Later a man from Europe said that he wanted to marry her and invited her to Vienna. When she arrived there, he took her passport and forced her into sex work. After one year she escaped with the help of an Ethiopien woman.
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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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  • Kohlmannskoppe, Namibia 2007
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  • Windhoeck, namibia, 2008
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  • Epupa, Namibia, 2006
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  • Epupa, Namibia, 2006
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  • Epupa, Namibia, 2006
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  • Epupa, Namibia, 2006
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  • Windhoeck, namibia, 2008
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  • Kohlmannskoppe, Namibia 2007
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  • Kohlmannskoppe, Namibia 2007
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  • Epupa, Namibia, 2006
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  • Windhoeck, Namibia, 2007
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  • Namibia, 2007
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  • After a local thunderstorm with heavy rainfall, steam rises from the ravine of Fishriver Canyon in Namibia. Thunderstorms and rain are said to be very rare in this extremely dry area.
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  • (2013) Dina gets some tap water at a sanitary installation near her shack. Namibia is is the most arid country south of the Sahara. Rainfall, the main supplier of water, is very scarce. The Namibian government tries to improve the situation of the poorest people in Katutura by constructing sanitary facilities even in the sqatter settlements. But the tap water is not for free, of course. Often, the women have difficulties to bring up the money for the water which they need for themselves and their children.
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