This is my fourth year as a sex worker. From it I earn some living. I get some money to pay rent, I have a six-year-old kid. I pay for his school fees because his dad abandoned me. Now I am earning and living as an individual. So the next day you have to move on with life. However it is also not enough. I began this job after I had lost my parents. I got a man; I stayed with him for some time. But when I got pregnant, he just ran away from me. So I found life hard. That is why I decided to come, after a friend of mine briefed me about sex working.
It is not really easy to be a sex worker because it is illegal and there are some harsh conditions. And also another problem, these guys or the clients…. You cannot report him anywhere because sex work is illegal here. And they arrest us. I have been arrested four times. The police abuse us and at times they also take advantage of us. I remember one time, he arrested me, then reaching there, he said if you want me to release you, then you also have to give me sex.
I had to because I had no option by then. I will never forget that moment because they were taking us to prison not even to the police station.
They brought us some doctors who taught us how we can prevent STIs, they gave us free condoms, they have also helped us with safe abortions after rape. Unsafe abortion is too much. So I decided to just abort locally with some herbs that you can get. I tried it, actually I was going to die. I was totally disturbed and I was rushed to the hospital. I was bleeding a lot.
You can get pregnant when it is not the right time. But safe abortion is so safe just like the name sounds. The biggest challenge for women who do sex work is the law because we do it illegally. Everyone has her own way of getting the clients. Others have our numbers. If not you can come on the street. To be a sex worker is so hard. It is so hard.
