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Christian Bobst Photography

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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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  • (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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  • (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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  • (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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  • 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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  • (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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  • (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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  • A training course at the TASO training center in Kampala. The TASO training function is ensuring that individual and service providers in different institutions with in and outside Uganda access HIV/AIDS training. Over the years TASO has trained individuals, communities and organizations through participative approaches and direct partnership with people living with HIV/AIDS. Today TASO has trained over 15, 000 individuals both locally and internationally since inception.
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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) 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) 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 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) 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) 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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  • (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 walks down the street at the center of the city of Windhoeck.
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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) 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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  • (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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  • (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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  • (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) 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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  • 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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  • (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) 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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  • The AIDS Support Organization (TASO) was founded in 1987 by Noerine Kaleeba and a group of friends and colleagues some of whom were either directly infected with HIV or implicitly affected because their very close familial associates were infected. Today TASO cares for over 100,000 people annually through HIV counseling, medical care as well as social support.
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  • An MDD Group is rehersing at the TASO Day Care Center in Kampala. The TASO MDD (Music, Dance and Drama) groups are composed of people living with HIV/AIDS who have decided to go public about their sero-status and freely share their experiences with others. They go to schools, markets and other communities to educate people through personal testimonies and HIV/AIDS message-laden music dance and drama.
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  • Clients waiting at the indoor waiting-area of the TASO Service Center  in Kampala. Once clients are registered, all TASO services are free of charge. TASO runs 11 service centers spread in Uganda, with now 22 "mini-TASOs" and Community Based organisations in other parts of the country that are outside TASO's catchment area of 75Km from the nearest service center.
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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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  • 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 walks out of the roman catholic church´s canteen at Pioneers Park.
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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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  • (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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  • (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) "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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  • 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) Eunice at the age of 17. At that time, she was already a young mother.
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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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  • Two assistants help to attach several Gris-gris amulets to the wrestlers body before the fight in the small village of in the small village Djilass on April 1, 2015.
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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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  • (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) 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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  • (2013)  Father Hermann counsels a woman who seeks his help at his home at the church in Pioneers Park.
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  • April 1, 2015. Two assistants prepare a wrestler for a tournament In the small village of Djilass. They  help the  wrestler to wrap a cloth around his abdomen, at which the wrestlers hold each other during the fight.
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  • Serigne Cheikh Seye is not only a Marabout in the sense of a spiritual leader and teacher, but also a renowned shaman doctor and healer. He inherited his wisdom and healing power from his father and has often been invited by Europeans and Americans seeking his help to restore their health.
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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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  • A worker is waving his hands at his collegues to ask for help with a machine. The old machines at the factory break down often.
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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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  • 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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  • The French architect Louis Chauchon built the central market in Phnom Penh, in Cambodian Phsar Thmey, in 1937. At the opening in 1937, Phsar Thmey counted as the biggest market hall of Asia. The market was renovated from 2001 to 2009 with the help of 4.3 billion dollars from French aid funds.
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