As coordinator of a group that works with women at risk of HIV infection for the past four years, Phenyo Gaotlhobogwe is a pillar of support for some of society’s most marginalized. That makes her witness to a lot of heartrending stories that happen to a group of people that are often forgotten, but cannot be wished away. There is an 18-year-old orphan who was driven to sex work by an aunt’s nagging taunts to “go out and look for money”. Then there is a 10-year-old girl who witnessed her mother having sex with clients and thought herself skilled to provide some practical lessons to schoolmates (The facts were revealed after teachers learnt of a sex party that went on in the school toilets). And ÔÇô perhaps the most shameful ÔÇô law enforcers who purposefully target illegal immigrants engaged in sex work to demand free sex and money in exchange for looking the other way.
The NGO that Gaotlhobogwe heads, Nkaikela Youth Group, is based in Tlokweng. That village, dissected by the road plied by long distance drivers, is a favourite overnight stop for truck drivers makes it a popular site for commercial sex. The sex traders are mostly young women who reside in Tlokweng, though they come from different parts of Botswana and even from outside. They may have different backgrounds, but their story is similar: they were drawn here by the hope of finding employment in the city, but when employment prospects ran short, they turned to even shorter skirts and headed for the roadside.
“Most of them come from poor families so they are drawn into the business by lack of basic necessities such as food, clothing and money for basic amenities,” explains Gaotlhobogwe.
To effectively assist the women to find lasting solutions to their situation, Gaotlhobogwe’s team had to develop various interventions that are specific to the issues at hand. These fall into three broad areas: behavioural, structural and biomedical.
Why these three?
Let’s start with behavioural intervention. This derives from the reality that people are involved in sex work, and appropriate measures have to be developed for them to minimize risk behaviour. These include ensuring that there is adequate and accessible supply of condoms, especially during peak periods such as monthend, and empowering the women to negotiate condom use. This is important given that some women tell stories of clients who promise to pay more for unprotected sex.
“For some someone who has pressing needs at home and is desperate for money, the promise of money can easily lead them to fall for risky behaviour,” she says.
Given the strong public perceptions about sex workers, sometimes they are abused by structures that are supposed to help them. They may encounter barriers in accessing healthcare. Most of them suffer injustice on account of the trade they are in. At other times, they are harassed by police officers. Some suffer human rights abuse, and have no recourse. For instance, what options does one have when a client refuses to pay? To report to the police is self-incrimination that one is engaged in unlawful trade.
At the level of biomedical intervention, Gaotlhobogwe wants the organisation to have the capacity to carry out testing on site.
Currently, the existing intervention on that front is the referral system, done in coordination with other stakeholders to make it traceable. The coordinated approach makes it possible to follow up referral cases and establish if a client managed to access assistance.
Gaotlhobogwe says they have successfully reached out to healthcare providers by training them to understand what drives people to sex work. This is important because it is a trade with unique dynamics and challenges that make its traders even more prone to HIV.
Without necessarily advocating for legalization of sex work, Gaotlhobogwe says it is important to destigmatise the trade and appreciate that it happens.
“People are doing it,” she says. “If we are to curb HIV spread, that has to be our starting point. Though we don’t encourage sex work, we realize that it is happening. We should reach out to people in the trade to lessen the associated risks. Those who eventually decide to leave the trade will do so.”
One of the centre’s programmes is a group intervention that currently has 60 women. The programme, known as Ikageng Bomme, is meant to help the women to improve themselves and identify alternative livelihoods. Through this initiative, some have successfully been enrolled in the Back-to-School programme.
The initiative derives from past studies that asked sex workers to share their dreams. What came out of the studies sheds a rare light in a dark corner.
“Interestingly,” Gaotlhobogwe shares, “from reports dating back to 2011, nobody expressed any desire to be a professional sex worker. Their ambitions are like yours and mine. They want to own a home. Some want their children to go back to school. Others want better jobs. This taught us to handhold them and introduce them to various government programmes (that can lead to alternative livelihoods). On the other hand, we support those still involved in sex work because we want to curb new infections.”
There are times when she gets frustrated with government rules. One such instance is the social welfare service which apparently stops when a beneficiary turns 18.
“When you are dumped at 18, what do you do? Some obviously opt for sex work. Government needs to clean up. Making changes to allow for continued support can minimize entry to sex work,” she says.
While the average age of a sex worker is 35, Gaotlhobogwe points out that the youngest she encountered had entered the trade at 13.
Wasn’t she supposed to be in school?
“She was supposed to be in school, but she wasn’t,” she answers. “There are girls who fall pregnant at around 12 or13. That is defilement. But there is no system that tracks them. If they are orphaned nobody helps them. We meet them when they are aged about 18 when they can’t go to primary school or junior secondary. Unfortunately, government has no procedure to track dropouts and bring them back into the school system…. This is one of the reasons we end up with sex workers who didn’t want to be sex workers in the first place.”
Last year the organisation embarked on an ambitious task. It was felt that to make meaningful impact, sex workers’ clients had to be sensitized; so it was decided to reach out to the buyers ÔÇô the men.
“We managed to call about 10 to a workshop,” Gaotlhobogwe reveals. “Many of them had no knowledge about prevention methods. Some held beliefs that lead to risky behavoiur; beliefs such as that men cannot be infected.”
What came out of the workshop made the effort worthwhile. After listening to presentations, the men were eager to access prevention services. It was agreed to start an intervention group for them.
I ask her about the sex worker who doesn’t fit the stereotype ÔÇô the so-called high-end pro.
“It is difficult to get through to the high profile sex worker,” she answers. “Sex work comes in different forms. Sometimes it disguises as a relationship, but when you look at it closely you realize that it is really sex work. It comes at different levels. There are some women who are known as respected figures in their communities who support their men and children through sex work.”
The other segment of the trade that often falls off the radar is the male sex worker. Gaotlhobogwe confirms the existence of male sex workers. I ask who their clients are.
“It’s the other men,” she replies.
She terms the male sex workers a very high risk group because they practise anal sex, which is said to have a much higher infection rate than vaginal sex. Gaotlhobogwe asserts that the healthcare system has to make provision to render special assistance to the male sex worker.
This job is a distant world away from Gaotlhobogwe’s other life as an opera singer and spoken word poet. What probably prepared her for both worlds was her degree programme, in which she majored in gender studies and music.
