On the night of 23 January 2012, Anthony Omari, 24, woke in his room at Faraja Children’s Home in Ngong, Kenya. The home, run with his mother, Martha Bosire, held 37 abandoned and orphaned children. Thieves had already hit the compound three times that month. This time they were in his bedroom, armed with machetes.

He kept a hammer under the bed. He drove the men outside. The children were awake and screaming at the door. As he turned to push them back in and lock it, a blade caught him from forehead toward the upper lip. He shut the door, then collapsed. Eleven stitches. Two days in hospital. He went back to the home because he would not leave the children unguarded.

A Penn State student, Ben Hardwick, posted the photograph of the fresh scar on Reddit and asked for help with a fence. More than 3,600 people in 50 U.S. states and 46 countries sent over $80,000. The money paid for fencing, guards, and beds for children who had been sleeping on the floor.

Accounts differ on whether three or six men came through the dark; Omari’s own telling to the Associated Press is of a thrown machete that missed, a fight into the yard, and the cut as he sealed the door. The children were unharmed. Later profiles say he completed a civil-engineering degree, started a construction firm, and still visits Faraja.

The collage is that scar at different ages, and a child on his lap. Courage here is not a speech. It is a man who locked a door before he let himself fall down.

Sources

• Associated Press / Sydney Morning Herald, 3 February 2012: Ngong attack, 11 stitches, Reddit fundraiser (~$80,000)
• Anthony Omari’s account of locking the children in before losing consciousness
• Faraja Children’s Home; Martha Bosire; Ben Hardwick Reddit appeal