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Christian Bobst Photography

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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 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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  • (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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  • 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) 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) 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) 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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  • (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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  • 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) 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) 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) 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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  • (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) 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) 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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  • 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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  • 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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  • 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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  • (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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