In these interviews with IKENNA OBIANERI, some sex workers in Anambra State expressed their frustration with the path that life has led them and expressed gratitude for their encounter with the Save Young Girls Motherhood Foundation, founded by Reverend Sister Dorothy Okoli, which is trying to rehabilitate them
What is your name, your age and where you are from?
My name is Chinechelum Ede. I am 27 years old. I am from Enugu State. I am here in Onitsha to do prostitution. I have been doing this job for over five years now.
Where are your parents and what is your position in your family?
My father is in Aba, while my mother is in Nsukka. They are not living together. I am the fourth child.
Why did you go into this job?
I went into this job out of frustration, when the suffering became too unbearable and having unsuccessfully searched for job and found none. I don’t like the job and I am looking for a way out but I feel trapped.
Did you go to school or learn any vocation?
I did not finish my secondary school education because my parents separated and I was not able to fund my education. I did not learn any vocation as there was no means of doing so. I took to prostitution to see if I could raise money to start a trade.
So, how much have you been able to raise?
Sadly, I have not raised any tangible amount; we spend a lot on payment for accommodation, feeding and hotel needs. The bills we pay are far too much that it is difficult to save the money. I am in a regrettable state now, not knowing what to do, whether to go forward or backwards. I am in a fix.
What has been your experience with men who patronise you?
Various men patronise us. We see a lot of them, such as office workers, agberos; a lot of married men come too; they sneak in at night to avoid being seen by people who may know them. They tell us that the reason they come to us is because their wives don’t give them what they want. But we also see bad customers; those who have negative motives, like ritualists, Yahoo Yahoo Boys. Many of our colleagues who were unlucky have been killed. But despite all these fearful experiences, we still continue because we don’t have any other option.
How did you feel when the Save Young Girls Motherhood Foundation visited your brothel?
For the first time in my life, I felt a sense of belonging and my hope was raised. It was the best experience in my life and I want to thank the foundation for letting us know that there is a better life out there in society.
What are your expectations?
I am calling on government and good-spirited individuals to come to our rescue. We went into this job as a result of societal and parental abandonment, if they can help to reabsorb us into society and rehabilitate us, so that we start living our normal lives, it will be a welcome development. We are tired of this job, just that we think there is no other option.
I had thought prostitution’d be an easy way out of poverty, I was wrong – 22-year-old Mgbogu
What is your name, age and where you are from?
My name is Success Mgbogu. I am 22 years. I am from Delta State. I do prostitution work in Asaba.
What is your position in your family?
My parents gave birth to five children and I am the third.
When did you start prostitution and why are you into it?
I started at the age of 18 and it is due to my family’s financial challenges. I dropped out of school in SS1; I made a lot of efforts to do menial jobs to further my education, but when the suffering became unbearable, I turned to prostitution.
Since you started, what have you achieved?
Unfortunately, nothing much, most of the money I make goes into paying for the brothel rent and feeding. It is not a palatable experience; I am in a position of not being able to go back and not being able to go forward.
What is your advice to other young girls who may be looking at prostitution as a way of out of their bad situations?
My advice is for them to look at other profitable ventures to go into. If I had someone to advise me, my situation would not have been like this. I thought this was an easy way out, but it is not. People may think it is easy, but we that are there, we know what we go through on a daily basis and we are looking for a way out.
How did you feel when the foundation visited your brothel and what are your expectations?
That was the best moment of my life. Before then, we lived a life of rejection and societal abandonment. Their visit brought hope to us. At least, we can live a better life out there. I urge society to forgive and have mercy on us and see how they can help us to become better human beings that we are supposed to be.
My encounter with sex workers shows they’re tired but don’t know way out – Revd Sister Okoli
Please introduce yourself.
My name is Sister Dorothy Chinyere Okoli, the founder of the Congregation of Missionary Sisters of St. John Paul II Missionary of St. Mary, Nkwelle-Ezunaka, Oyi Local Government Area, Anambra State. I am a teacher and we also run a non-governmental organisation, where we take care of orphans by educating them, feeding them and sheltering them as part of our main apostolate activities.
What made you become a reverend sister and what drives your passion for what you are doing?
My desire to become a reverend sister and to work for God was ignited at the age of 15 after visiting Rev. Fr. Emmanuel Edeh’s Pilgrimage Centre, Elele, Rivers State with my father. I have always wanted to live a life of service to humanity, for this reason, I formed an NGO called ‘Save Young Girls Motherhood Foundation’.
What is the aim of the foundation?
The aim is to counsel and rehabilitate young girls involved in prostitution. A lot of our girls are going into prostitution out of negligence and ignorance of the dangers involved in it. Research revealed that over 70 per cent of them are from broken homes resulting in lack of parental care and societal abandonment, so, they ignorantly went into prostitution thinking that is the only way out. These girls, mostly between the ages of 17 and 18, go into this illicit trade because of their inability to continue their education due one reason or the other and some of them who have learnt a vocational skill find it difficult to establish themselves to practise what they have learnt.
What exactly is your foundation doing for such girls?
Currently, we are visiting brothels across the country to counsel these girls. Some of them who have embraced our counsel and showed willingness to quit the trade, we engage them in training in various vocations and the ones who have not completed secondary school and are willing to further their education are assisted in ensuring they are enrolled in school. We give them proper monitoring and guidance. This is what we do so as to give these young girls a meaningful life and help them not to return to the life of prostitution.
When did you start this initiative and how many prostitutes have you been able to rehabilitate?
We started in August 2020.We have so far visited over 30 brothels both in Anambra and Delta states. We have been able to bring out more than 85 of these girls who have willingly decided to renounce prostitution and they are currently undergoing rehabilitation.
Mind you, it is not something you force on them; they have to agree and decide within themselves that they want to live a normal life. More than 126 of these girls are still on our list and waiting to be assisted out of prostitution but we have a major challenge of limited resources.
What insight have you had into prostitution from your interactions with these people?
From the interviews and counseling I had with them, most of them entered into prostitution out of frustration, most of them are homeless and from broken homes, majority of them were rejected by their families while some are orphans. So, generally, we found out that they don’t like the job and are willing and eager to come out of it if given better opportunities.
The mood or picture we see in every brothel we visit is that of people already tired of what they are doing and suddenly see a ‘Messiah’ who has come to offer help.
In the course of my interactions with them, I found out that many of their colleagues have been killed for one ritual purpose or the other. Sadly, most men who patronise them come with various motives. They said many of their customers are drug addicts, Yahoo-Yahoo Boys and ritualists who come on dangerous mission to take advantage of them. They said their experiences with the men are not giving them joy. They are living a life of hopelessness and not knowing what to do and most of these girls are still teenagers of about 18 years who have believed that prostitution is the last resort. So, you will see that these girls need proper guidance and mentoring to enable them to see other better opportunities in life.
What challenges are you facing in this task?
The challenges are enormous; this is supposed to be a collective engagement through government, well-meaning individuals and society at large. We need help in the area of logistics, shelter and training for the girls, because in luring them out of the prostitution work we need to also engage them meaningfully so as to prevent them from going back into the illicit trade. Those that want to further their education, the foundation is looking at it, those that want to get a vocational training of their choice, training and retraining them and getting them engaged in meaningful ventures, the foundation is also looking at that. This is a challenge because the resources are limited and there is so much work to do. But remember, the ultimate aim is to get these girls out of prostitution and engage them in meaningful activity.
Do you get negative reactions from the brothel owners who will be out of business if you succeed in persuading the sex workers to quit?
Luckily for us, all the brothels we have visited, their owners have always been receptive. In fact, they are the ones who always take us to the inner territories for us to see the awful lifestyle these girls are living. It is true that these girls are keeping the brothel owners in business but if they are taken off, I’m sure the brothel operators will look for something else to do.
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