In a country where almost half of the population is not consuming enough nutrients to live a healthy life, poverty often drives girls to work on the streets. Some young teenagers work in prostitution to earn money to meet their basic needs.
The mentor (Mammy Queen) of a group of commercial sex workers at Lumley, Blessing Conteh has told Premier News on Wednesday June 3, 2020, that the outbreak of the Coronavirus in Sierra Leone has caused commercial sex trade to become increasingly difficult.
Conteh called on the government to remove the curfew given the nature of their trade. She said that the curfew is preventing them from working during peak periods.
She added that prostitution is her only means of survival, and added that the Curfew imposed by government from 6:00 am to 9:00pm prevents clients from soliciting their services.
She emphasized that the fall in the demand for their services has caused a significant fall in the prices they ask for because some customers complain of reduction in their earnings due to COVID-19, thereby reducing their income.
She added that the number of clients had dropped drastically as some customers are afraid of contracting Coronavirus in the course of sex, because one of the methods of preventing Coronavirus is by maintaining social distance. “Some customers are afraid because we meet with people from all works of life,” she added.
Another commercial sex worker, Juliet Kaimapo added that the curfew sometimes cause them to be held up in the homes of some clients, because they are afraid of falling foul of the law and be arrested by security personnel responsible for enforcing the curfew, thus causing them to waste time and earn meagre incomes.
She further explained that because of life’s circumstances they are forced into prostitution, adding “I am a single parent of three school going children that need basic amenities; prostitution is the channel through which I earn my money to care for my children.”
A former commercial sex worker, Maria Konneh, also narrated that she started doing commercial sex trade at an early age due to the death of both her parents in a fatal accident in the year 2010, adding that because of that she also dropped out of school at the age of 18 years.
She further explained that in 2015, she fell in love with a regular customer who later married her, changed her life and taught her to be a good house wife. She noted that hitherto her marriage in 2015, commercial sex trade would have seemed to her the only means to survival in life.
“Life during those that period was extremely challenging, and I had no option but to continue doing commercial sex work to survive. I am presently living happily with my husband and I am engaged in petty trading,” she added. She advised others commercial sex workers that there are other ways of making a living besides engaging in commercial sex trade.
Mary Kargbo, another sex worker, revealed that she is from a decent family, but decided to choose commercial sex trade as a way of life.
By George M.O. Williams
09/06/2020. ISSUE NO.: 7841