A group of young commercial sex workers around Texaco and Liberia Bar in the east of Freetown, have on Thursday March 11, 2021 called on the Government and other humanitarian organizations to provide them with the platform where they could receive vocational education and help them out of prostitution.
Mariatu Kamara, 17, said that she took to the streets because her aunt pressured her after she lost both parents. She added that back then life had been very difficult for her.
“Sometimes it’s difficult for her to even give me food. I always did all the domestic work whilst her children go to school. I was not given the opportunity to go to school,” she revealed.
She added that she took to the streets to gain freedom: “Staying in the street is very difficult, but there is no option for me. At times men have affairs with me but refuse to pay, and when I demand my money they beat me up.”
I usually endure the pains because there is no one to go to for help. “The government has said that we are their children, so why are they letting us to be in such a position in the streets,” she asked.
She said that men usually give her Le30,000 for sex.
“I want to go back to school, but where should we start it all? I am appealing to the Government not to neglect us, the young girls in the streets, because we are humans like those they are presently supporting in the schools and in other areas,” she stressed.
Nancy Kamaku, 15, explained that she was forced by her guardians to choose street life and engage herself in prostitution. She said after her mother passed away, she had no peace with her father and her step-mother who now lives with her father in the home.
“My father used to love me, but when my mother passed away some years ago, things changed,” she wondered.
She said she felt more comfortable in the street than living with her father and step-mother, in-spite of the fact that prostitution is dangerous.
“We could not detect sexually transmitted diseases until we contracted them. Only God will protect us.”
She said that she came from Hastings to Freetown in search of her living through prostitution. “I used to stay without food to eat and even proper clothes to wear, but recently I do eat food and dress averagely well.”
She said that they had been told that during the regime of the late President Ahmed Tejan Kabbah, women who were living in prostitution were a removed from the streets and sent to different vocational institutions to pursue Gara-tie-dying, tailoring, soap making and many others.
“We are also seeking the same opportunities from the Government. At least that would help us more,” she concluded.
By Ibrahim S.Bangura
23/03/2021. ISSUE NO: 8026