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“I grew up in Namuwongo, a suburb of Kampala next to a red light district and my best friend’s mother was a s ex worker. I’ll always remember what my friend, Resty, went through to seek medication for her mother. She was rejected at every hospital and then her mum passed away. Resty had to look after her younger siblings so she went into the same line of work. We lost touch but I’m praying that one day we will meet again. She was made me what I am today. Her story inspired me to start Rhythm of Life.
We work in two red light districts in Uganda helping HIV-positive female s ex workers to access healthcare and their daughters to access education to break the cycle of mother-to-daughter prostitution. We have got five girls into education so far, two in primary school and three in secondary school.
There are 500 to 1,000 women working in these districts every night, some as young as 15. According to The Lancet, 37% are HIV positive, and because they don’t prioritise HIV testing they transfer the the virus to their children.
The government is interested in the issue because the women are the major source of spreading HIV in Uganda. It passed a bill last year for a law that would criminalise people who knowingly pass on the virus. We are strongly against this. We hope that it will be reconsidered.
The government and the entire community blame the s ex workers for spreading the disease. It’s not fair. There is a mindset that the s ex workers deserve to die or get ill because of the kind of work they do. When they seek medical care the hospitals reject them. The authorities’ only concern is the s ex workers transmitting the virus to the rest of the population – not for the s ex workers themselves.
The government should work with us to help the s ex workers. But as we have seen with the anti-homos exuality bill, they do not support marginalised groups. We are under scrutiny. They are not willing to partner with us. Neither are the local community, the leaders in the red light districts see the s ex workers as a curse. These are a few challenges we face.
I want to see a Uganda where these women and their families can feel a sense of belonging. When I say I work with s ex workers people look at me like I’m crazy. Society has not accepted that a s ex worker deserves to get medication or social services. That’s why it is so hard to get them to open up to you, because they expect to be judged.
My proudest moments so far have been seeing the few girls that we’ve helped so far access education and reshape their future. I’m also proud that we’ve establishing a trusted relationship with many women. Now they know that even though police shout at them and hospitals reject them, they can always call on Rhythm of Life.
The most difficult times are when we are rejected by the women we are trying to help. We recently met a 16-year-old girl s ex worker who didn’t give a hoot. She said: “I’m content where I am. I’m not interested in future plans.” That was a hard moment.
But I have hope that she will change her mind. One of the women we work with, Dora, rejected us three times when we first got in touch with her. The first time she wouldn’t even open the door. But gradually we won her round. Sometimes I would think, “Should I give up?” I felt so low. But we went an extra mile, and then eventually she accepted our help. We visited her with a former s ex worker who works with us. She told us: “I know she will open the door”. That’s why working with the women’s peers is so important.
The daughter of one our first beneficiaries, Sharifah, is now in primary six. When we first met her daughter, Aisha, had missed two terms of school. Now her daughter is getting an education, Sharifah is willing to change her path. We will support her to find another source of income.
We work with girls, not boys, because I wanted to stop the cycle of s ex work from mother to daughter. I haven’t seen any mother-to-son cycles of prostitution. The girls are in the most risky position. If the mother can no longer do what she’s doing, she sends off her daughter to bring in an income to her family. There’s pressure from the mothers and the entire community for the daughters to follow their mothers into s ex work. If I am the daughter of a s ex worker, and my mother passes on, society expects me to take her place.
I’m happy to be able to operate in the first year, but now the question is how are we moving on, how are we scaling up? We still have a gap of funds. We need more partners to take our work forward and more donors and volunteers to help us make our dreams a reality.
The next steps are to open a “health cafe” where the women can access medicine and a training centre where they can learn advocacy skills, computer skills and online campaigning. We want to see 30 to 50 girls stop working the red light district and pursue different careers and start to benefit the community. If I meet one of the girls in 10 years’ time and she tell me she’s a doctor, nurse or teacher, I will be so proud”.
In a related development, four companies will soon commence production of HIV/AIDS anti-retroviral drugs in Nigeria.
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