* Any views expressed in this opinion piece are those of the author and not of Thomson Reuters Foundation.
Sidi Sarro, a citizen journalist from Kenya who writes for the International HIV/AIDS Alliance’s Key Correspondents project, meets young sex workers from Kibera, Nairobi, one of the largest slums in the world. The opinions expressed are her own.
It is estimated that more than half of Nairobi’s population lives in Kibera and, according to the Centre for Disease Control, more than 20 percent of Kibera’s population is HIV positive.
Lack of reproductive healthcare is an issue that affects women and girls in this community. Many girls become pregnant and resolve to have unsafe abortions or drop out of school and enter into early marriage. Some will turn to sex work as a way to make ends meet.
Njoki* is a student in one of Kibera’s primary schools. Unknown to her teachers, she lives a double life; a student by day and a sex worker at night. She is barely fifteen.
Most school mornings, Njoki arrives late and is often too tired to concentrate on her lessons. Her guardian is a single parent who survives by brewing alcohol and engaging in sex work.
As she is not able to take care of Njoki and the other children under her care, Njoki supplements the family income through sex work and still it is barely enough.
Thanks to free primary school education, Njoki is able to go to school like other children her age. But unlike most children her age, Njoki has already had one abortion.
At first, when her guardian introduced her into the trade, she was still at a tender age and the act was too painful but with time Njoki says she has got used to it.
Her clients, older men who drink at the den where her guardian works, will go inside a room with her once they have finished their drink and the money is paid to her guardian.
Njoki says she knows about HIV and AIDS –she learnt about it in school – but still she has unprotected sex with her clients as it pays more.
Caro*, 14, engages in sex work so she can earn money without which she would go without the basics. Unlike Njoki, Caro solicits for sex outside, along strategic places in the slum.
She will be seen scantily dressed and heavily made up in a bid to attract clients. Her guardian is aware of what Caro does because she too is a sex worker who had Caro while in the trade.
Milli*, 15, is in school studying for her primary school certificate. She has been taking care of her three siblings since their mother died of an AIDS related illness.
Milli says she was introduced into sex work and it has enabled her to pay for their basic needs. She also knows the risks involved but asks who will take care of her family if she doesn’t?
Child sex work is slowly increasing, especially in slums, where it has become a means of survival for many young people.
Most of these children are either orphans or living with guardians who are in the same trade or too poor to offer them the necessities of life.
Some guardians keep destitute children in the guise of helping them then act as their pimps, hiring them for sex in exchange for money.
Child sex work not only undermines the rights of these children but also destroys their future and exposes them to drugs, HIV and AIDS, abortions, early marriage and death.
With almost half of all new HIV infections in the world among people under the age of 25, and four out of every 100 Kenyan women aged between 15 and 19 being HIV positive, more must be done to enable girls such as Njoki, Caro and Milli to realise their reproductive health rights.
The lives they live are currently a far cry away from those that would make the World AIDS Day vision of getting to zero new HIV infections a reality.
Sidi Sarro is a Key Correspondent, a global network supported by the International HIV/AIDS Alliance, which enables people from communities most affected by HIV to document the realities they and those they know face.
*The names in this article have been changed to protect the identities of those involved.
