By Aminata Sesay (Intern)
Civil Society activists have raised concerns about prostitution calling a normal trade in Sierra Leone. They pointed out that the country’s laws on prostitution are ambiguous adding that selling sex is not illegal in itself.
Sex for money, according to civil society activists, has been going on for decades in this part of the world with all the negativity and dangers of prostitution associated with it.
One might want to know why women and girls engage in such trade and various answers have popped in. By its nature and practice, According to the activists, prostitution means the sale of sex for money. Money lures the prostitutes in the sex trade as most hail from low-income backgrounds.
They pointed out that, for indoor workers, especially girls, prostitution is a potentially well-paying occupation and a lucrative trade. CSOs said streetwalkers hardly get rich from prostitution and suffer many problems, but prostitution still provides them a source of income that they are unlikely to receive through legal occupations because they have few marketable job skills.
Other women related institution has lamented that women engaged in sex work due to obvious reasons, including economic factors such as financial hardship, limited job opportunities, or the need to support themselves or their families can play a role.
Most of the women are coerced, trafficked, or exploited into sex work against their will. Sierra Leone is known to be one of the poorest countries in Africa. With all our minerals, rich land and diamonds, yet the people still wallow in poverty.
Also, they many explained that the reason why girls in Sierra Leone end up selling their bodies in the streets generally originate in their homes. They are often already victims of abuse, abandoning, neglect or extreme poverty within their families, long before they are engaged in prostitution.
Women organisations have also identified unemployment as one that nurtures prostitution. They stated that some ladies have skills while others are graduates but because they are jobless, they decide to engage in sex for money. The emergence of the social media has worsened participation of women in prostitution as many have created groups to hook up.
According to one of the victims of prostitution, there are wealthy women who look for hook-ups as they create groups and send nudes pictures or videos to attract men.
“Technology has made it so easy for girls to do prostitution online through WhatsApp, Facebook, Instagram among others,” they said.
Prostitutes have suffered from psychological effects, including PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder), anxiety and depression as well as somatisation and stigmatisation. Many have also suffered physical effects including high risk of sexually transmitted diseases and physical violence, drug abuse and addiction.
Some prostitutes also suffer from rape and physical violence from their customers as they fail to pay them after service. Remedying the situation, analysts say, involves counseling commercial sex workers about health risks.
Government and charitable organisations fighting to end gender-based violence have been called up to educate women in prostitution to protect themselves and their customers from STDs.
Government should also appeal for effort to increase access to preventive and therapeutic health care for women who engage in sex work. “More jobs should be created as well to employ these women so that they will stop having sex for money,” one of the CSOs suggested.