Illegal

Prostitution in Uganda is illegal. Since 2004, it has been discussed by parliament whether sex workers should have a legal status and whether their earnings should be taxed. Most members of parliament say that the prostitutes’ ‘immoral earnings’ are a shame in a nation whose motto is “For God and my country”. In this context, sex workers’ rights are not respected in Uganda and they have no one to defend them when they need support.

Most prostitutes in Kampala city are young women, most of them less than 35 years of age. They join the sex trade due to different problems like poverty, unemployment, lack of enough education. Some are orphans and others are divorced. They reside in the slums of Kampala city where housing is very cheap. In the evening they travel to the city to work in the streets.

Visit to Bwayise

In the second-half of last-year, I, and a fellow UHESWO member, Shamim, gathered courage and visited these women of our age-group in Bwayise, a suburb of Kampala city. We arrived early with the intention of discovering what they did during their free time. In fact everybody was busy. Some were breast-feeding their undernourished babies; others were chewing drugs while many of them were preparing themselves for the evening duty. We waited in a corner while two of them tried to gather their friends to meet us.

While waiting we almost choked on a strange smell – we turned around and saw three naked, carefree and beautiful young girls behind us. They were smoking pipes and making erotic gestures. They said this helped them get more customers. I was very scared and wanted to run away. But I steadied myself because I had to handle the challenge that I was facing as a young woman leader.

Painful Meeting

When they gathered, I talked to them very briefly. I had plans for a big talk, but seeing some of them naked and others chewing drugs, I thought that the girls were mad and not normal enough to listen to me. I told them: “My friends, you are being abused and criticized by many people, but you are human beings whose rights too must be respected. You have the right to make your own choices. On top of that, nobody was born a prostitute but circumstances can force one to be. You are still very young and you can still live healthy productive lives. Your life is very important and your job is full of risks. Hence, be careful. Use condoms”. I then distributed condoms to each of them.

I do not know what made them take to me. They spoke openly: most of them were Muslims and they never had a good education. Muslims do not take education of girls seriously. During the discussion, they shared with us their own experiences. These included being forced into unprotected sex by drug addicts. Indeed, some of them were pregnant and do not know the men responsible. Impotent men hurt them with sticks which they used instead to penetrate them. Other men scared them with pistols, knives and hammers and cheated them of their earnings. Some stubborn men put on polythene bags instead of condoms. Sadly, the policemen were as dangerous as the impotent men. The police always arrested them and shamed them in public. They were regularly exposed in the newspapers and were therefore despised and discriminated by the community. By the time they completed outlining all their problems, tears were rolling down the cheeks of some of them. Some of these vulnerable people became prostitutes because they had no alternative.

UHESWO is planning to start rehabilitation education in future for these young women so that they can quit the sex trade and pursue healthy, productive and sustainable livelihoods. Meanwhile, to protect them from grave danger, the unfortunate women need condoms which are too expensive for them – they requested UHESWO to provide them with condoms if possible – they each need 35 condoms a week on an average.

Using Science and Reason

We have since organised a workshop on 13 January 2007 for the sex workers – the first-ever in Uganda. The workshop theme was Empowering Vulnerable Women through Science and Reason and it was sponsored by Humanist Action for Human Rights (founded by IHEU’s member organization the Humanist Association of Norway).

Our aim in organizing this workshop was to increase awareness among sex workers as regards HIV/AIDS, and the law regarding prostitution and rape. We aimed to counsel them so that gradually they could contemplate quitting prostitution. We also wanted to empower them with information about entrepreneurial skills so that they could think of life after prostitution.

The workshop, conducted in the Luganda language as well as in English, attracted over 70 participants, including 42 prostitutes, 4 facilitators, 20 UHESWO members and 4 invited guests.

Betty Nasaka