Losing money, saving life

It is midnight of 23 July, 2013 at Kachere Trading Centre in Blantyre. Apart from drinking beer of their choice, some men are moving outside the pub with sex workers. One of the sex workers is Kettie, a 19-year-old girl who has been in the business for over three years now.

Kettie plies her trade in a room behind the pub. When she returns to the pub smiling, she has probably earned K10 000 for having unprotected sex.

This is one of the days Kettie remembers to have had unprotected sex at Kachere Trading Centre along Limbe-Zomba Road. This did not happen by accident, but because she wanted the money.

“Unprotected sex would fetch a lot of money for me. I could charge a man up to K10 000 for it, while using a condom brought me as little as K1 500,” says Kettie.

She says she did not think about the dangers of contracting HIV, the virus that causes Aids.

“For me, all that mattered was the money,” says Kettie.

Fortunately, Kettie was saved before she contracted HIV.

“One day I was invited to a meeting between sex workers and officials from Badilika Foundation, where I learnt the importance of using a condom,” says Kettie.

Badilika Foundation was established in 2006. It is a religious community based organisation located at Manja in Blantyre.

The organisation’s executive director Forbes Msiska says one of the objectives of the organisation is to reduce the spread of HIV by protecting sex workers.

“Our aim is to improve lives of marginalised sex workers by promoting their health, protecting their rights and economic opportunities,” says Msiska.

According to him, since the inception of Badilika Foundation, 700 sex workers have been rescued from unprotected sex and are now using condoms with their clients despite that some men offer more money for unprotected sex.

Badilika Foundation’s work has extended to other Blantyre City townships such as Kachere, Chilomoni, Bangwe, Ndirande, Machinjiri and Chirimba.

“We have also established partnerships and networks with other stakeholders for collaboration and information sharing to ensure that sex workers are able to gain access to basic health and other key services,” explains Msiska.

He says the use of condoms also prevents unwanted pregnancies. The organisation also sensitises the sex workers to the importance of family planning.

“Through Badilika Foundation, I have benefited a lot. Now I use a condom to prevent both HIV and unwanted pregnancy. Business suffers when you get pregnant or have a baby,” says Kettie.

Msiska says the organisation also distributes free condoms in all drinking joints. Since the organisation started, 260 sex workers have attended family planning sessions.

Although the prevalence rate of HIV infection among sex workers is 69.1 percent, according to National Aids Commission (NAC-2012), there are some sex workers who are HIV negative. Therefore, the purpose of Badilika Foundation’s project is to ensure that HIV negative sex workers remain negative through community HIV prevention interventions.

“We conduct training workshops on safe sex skills such as condom use negotiation and facilitate access to HIV testing and counselling services. About 150 sex workers go for HIV testing and counselling each year,” says Msiska.

Today, Kettie’s room has a large poster on the wall that faces the door which reads: “No condom! No Sex”.

Badilika Foundation recruited Kettie to join one of their community discussion forums where they teach about condom negotiation and HIV risk.

After working with the foundation, Kettie says she is now able to negotiate condom use with her clients.

“I now know my rights. When a customer insists on unprotected sex, I show him the poster in my room and I tell him that if he is not using a condom, then I am not interested.

“Of course, sometimes I feel sad to see men return with their money because I have refused unprotected sex, but I now understand that it is better to earn less money through protected sex than getting more money by having unprotected sex because the latter exposes me to HIV and sexually transmitted infections (STIs),” says Kettie.