Maximilian Haizel-Roberts

Anthony Omari was asleep at Faraja Children’s Home in Ngong, Kenya, when six men with machetes reportedly broke in on the night of 23 January. It was the fourth attempted break-in that month. Omari was 24. He grabbed a hammer he kept under the bed and went at the intruders, pushing them outside while his mother, Martha Bosire, and 37 children were still inside. After he got them out, he turned back toward the scared kids gathered near the door. That’s when one of the men reportedly slashed him across the face with a machete. Even with a bad wound he managed to lock the front door before he collapsed from blood loss. At hospital doctors put 11 stitches in a cut that ran from his forehead down his cheek. Two days later he was discharged and went straight back to the orphanage. He didn’t want the children left without someone watching them. His story later reached Ben Hardwick, a 21-year-old Penn State student interning nearby, who helped get it out to more people. The home had already been hit three times that month, and Omari had faced the attackers each time. His mother kept running Faraja for abandoned and orphaned children in Ngong. Omari became known for how far he went to protect the kids in that house.