Sex workers and Sugar Mamas

In Rwanda, sex work is legal. There are, of course, a lot of risks--from HIV and other sexually transmitted infections (sex without condoms is common, and even pays more at times), to unwanted pregnancy (other forms of birth control are also not always used--for financial reasons as well as social reasons), and violence. But for some women, it's their only option. Some of the women FHI works with start while they're still in secondary school just to pay school fees.

FHI, the organization with which I have been interning this summer, has begun targeting sex work with its Regional Outreach to Address Development Strategies for HIV/AIDS (ROADS) project. They have set up Safe-T-Stops all over East Africa at popular trucking stops to distribute condoms, educate truckers and sex workers about HIV/AIDS and other STIs (some of which can make you more vulnerable to contracting HIV), and, quite simply, to give truckers something else to do in the evenings--like play pool or watch TV. 

A trucking job is a great job to get--it pays about 3x more than the average Rwandan wage. But as a result of the job, these men only spend an average of about 50 days at home per year. And, on top of that, they've got a little extra cash. And the sex workers come to them. It's a choice, yes, but let's be frank-- it's a choice complicated by circumstance and biology. 

FHI has organized groups in various districts around the country to mobilize communities against HIV. They have "clusters" for low-income women--some of whom are former sex workers, some of whom are economically vulnerable and thus prone to engage in sex work, and some of whom are wives of truckers. They've also now begun training current sex workers to be peer educators about HIV, condom use, and other matters of reproductive health, so that they can reach out to their fellow sex workers. Most commercial sex workers are not open about their livelihoods, so peer-to-peer communication is really the only way to reach them.

Truckers aren't the only clients, though. A great deal of the transactions actually happen in hotels, where a sex worker is just a phone call away. Wealthy men and foreigners are the ones who are the clients there. And driving around the city at night, I see women lingering on the corner who are, undoubtedly, looking for their next client. 

So what's the solution? I think the best we can do is try to make it so that a woman doesn't have to engage in sex work to feed her family; that if a woman thinks it's wrong, then she should have other options; and if she does do it, that she's safe. 

Rwanda actually seems to be really targeting women's rights issues. Sex work isn't the only issue where gender and economic inequalities cause problems. All over the country I see billboards like this one:

and this one

discouraging sugar daddies and sugar mamas. I'll admit, the idea of a sugar mama was unheard of to me--but my friend explained that a lot of women lost their husbands in the war and the genocide. And the way to gain respect in the village is to give birth to children, plus they have land that they need to pass on to their children and need children to help run. So they need to have babies. But they are older and not as likely to find a husband. So they attract young men and offer to be their "Shuga Mami". Sexual inequalities--both in Rwanda and in the US--are not always limited to female victims.

There are also ads all over the country urging the fight against gender based violence, as well as encouraging condom use. It all seems encouraging. Women's rights has made huge strides in this country, and it appears that it will continue to do so.


A short but interesting article: Former Sex Workers Fight Prostitution