Educating Maputo’s sex workers about HIV transmission remains a
challenge in a country where poverty is a catalyst for unprotected sex
Wearing
a tight red dress, a sex worker walks across the petrol station
forecourt to talk to a driver in an idling long-haul truck. But they’re
not negotiating a price; she is educating the man about the benefits of
protected sex.
“If they won’t wear a condom, I just walk away,” says Julia, 20, who
has been working on the streets of Maputo, the Mozambican capital, since
2012.
In a country where the economy and infrastructure remain bruised from
years of civil war, and half the population lives below the poverty
line, Julia’s willingness to walk away from work is a financial gamble.
The £6 she charges for a rapidinha – a “quickie” – is money the single mother desperately needs to support herself and her three-year-old daughter.
Levels of unemployment are high in urban areas of the country and,
despite handing out hundreds of CVs after leaving school, Julia says she
had no choice but to work on the streets.
“We tell the women: first life, then money,” says Esperanza Malumbe,
the founder of a local community-based organisation, Abavamo, which aims
to educate and empower Mozambican sex workers. More...
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