By Ibrahim S.Bangura
A group of commercial sex workers in the east of Freetown has made a passionate plea requesting for the Government of Sierra Leone and Non-Governmental Organizations to set up institutions from which they could acquire vocational skills training to prepare for a future better than their current station in society.
Several of them spoke to Premier News on Thursday October 13, 2022, saying that they currently work as commercial sex workers as a last resort for economic sustenance.
“But if we have vocational institutions where we can do Tailoring, Gara-tie-dying, Catering etc., we will not sell our bodies to men. We have no motivation; the vocational institutions will serve as a source of motivation to us if we have any,” they pleaded.
According to Queen D, who from Premier News’ observation is an opinion former and leader, and also mentor among her colleague sex workers, prostitution is the only means from which they take care of their personal and family’s needs.
She stated that in a country where almost half of the population does not consume enough nutrients to live a healthy life due to poverty, it should not be a surprise that girls are driven to find informal means of surviving on the Streets.
According to her a majority of teenage girls now work in the commercial sex industry as a result of dysfunctional family settings, poverty, lack of proper parenting etc.
“Many of us are not happy about our current station in life, but when life hits you down, the quantum of the tears you cry will not lift you up. Many times we are beaten up by men, who attack us and take away the proceeds from our trade, but we have to endure because we have nowhere to complain. It is really sad for us,” she lamented.
According to Queen D, formal schooling is not an option for the majority of them anymore, because they are advanced in age and their life styles is not in sync with the demands of conformity to the rules and discipline required in formal institutions of learning.
She says that if they are provided with vocational institutions, all their problems would be solved.
D man man, another sex worker, said that after her parents died in a fatal car accident in 2019, she had no one to take care of her; she decided to find her way in life by being a commercial sex worker.
“After the death of my parents, life became extremely challenging for me, and since I had no other option, I decided to sell my body for money to earn my daily bread. I started the job at age 18, after I had been introduced to it by a colleague who had the same plight. I am unhappy with this situation and I need help to have a normal life. In this business, we always encounter physical and sexual assaults from some of our clients. Besides that, we are sometimes affected by incurable diseases including HIV. So, to avoid all of such, I am appealing to the government and other humanitarian organizations to help us with vocational institutions to learn everlasting skills,” she concluded.