|
| Home » Features |
| |
 |
|
FEATURE |
|
| |
| Sex Workers Come Together
to Fight HIV/AIDS |
| |
| Since the first HIV positive case was
reported in 1987, the AIDS epidemic threatens to spread into
the general population in Pakistan. What is required is a comprehensive,
sustainable response involving all stakeholders in society including
vulnerable populations. According to Zofeen
T. Ebrahim of Inter-Press
Service, the success of the joint Social Marketing
project by UNAIDS, UNFPA and Greenstar involving sex workers
illustrates this fact. |
| |
| Karachi, Pakistan: Placing
her cell phone on the table, Zulekha runs her fingers through
her long, streaked hair and smiles uncertainly. Next to her,
Mariam, stifles a yawn and apologises. ''I had a late night,''
she adds, reading the text message on her phone. |
| |
| Then there is Bakhtawar who chews on the 'ghutka'
(a tobacco and betel-nut concoction) -- her stained teeth bearing
testimony to it. |
| |
| Looking up and down suspiciously, she sizes this
correspondent up and asks bluntly if she's from a newspaper.
|
| |
| Janat is the most welcoming, also the most advanced
in age. She beams and says she has finally learnt to write her
name through the female literacy programme that is currently
being run in the neighbourhood. |
| |
| The other two in the room, remain silent throughout
the discussion and their input is just limited to smiling and
acknowledging what others had to say. |
| |
| These six female sex workers (FSWs), belonging
to a community, especially vulnerable to the HIV/AIDS epidemic,
have mobilised themselves and taken up social marketing of condom
as one of their tasks. |
| |
| They have not only begun to use them for prevention,
but have convinced the women in their community that its use
is not just for ''preventing pregnancies'' but helps protect
them from sexually transmitted infections (STIs). And best of
all, they have started stocking them up in their homes for easy
and free access for the rest of the community and for free too.
|
| |
| ''It was embarrassing to go to the corner shop
or a pharmacy and ask for a condom. Then there was always the
fear factor of harassment by the police. This is far more convenient.
We can just send a message through someone and in a couple of
minutes, it is in our hands,'' says Zulekha. |
| |
| This group was formed as part of the pilot project
under the aegis of Greenstar Social Marketing, in 2003, in Serey
Ghat, the red light district in Hyderabad, Pakistan. |
| |
| The only one of its kind with the aim of imparting
awareness about STIs and HIV/AIDS among sex workers, without
stigmatising or demoralising them. The project is funded by
the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS )and
the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA)with Greenstar as
the implementing partner in close coordination with the National
and Sindh AIDS Control Programme. |
| |
| Serey Ghat is the fourth largest red light area
in Pakistan (others located in Karachi, Lahore and Multan).
According to a KAP (Knowledge, Attitude and Practices) survey
carried out by Greenstar, there are about 101 households, 70
active brothels and about 100 sex workers in this area. |
| |
| Informants revealed that many of the female sex
workers had migrated to cities like Karachi and Lahore when
a ban was imposed on their activities during Gen. Zia-ul-Haq's
military regime in the 1980s. |
| |
| What makes it all the more befuddling is that
the NGO decided to launch a pilot project in a place where all
activities have been banned for sometime by the government. |
| |
| Even more mystifying is that the government is
one of the project's partners. In fact, the National AIDS Control
Programmes (NACP) sets the guidelines for all HIV/AIDS interventions,
including those with sex workers. |
| |
| For the public, Serey Ghat is out of bounds as
far as sex work is concerned, yet these activities are carried
out on the sly. |
| |
| "The government invited bids for this project.
They have declared sex work as illegal, but are cognizant that
this practice exists,'' explains Alya Mian, Greenstar's senior
communications manager. |
| |
| ''Our task has become all the more complicated
due to this policy of the government as the target population
migrates to other cities and within residential areas where
we cannot reach out to them or help them in a concerted and
more organised manner,'' explains Mian. |
| |
| Zulekha, for instance, comes to Karachi for 'private
performances' nearly every Friday, and leaves on Sunday. Her
'private performances' are in some of Karachi's leading hotels
where she meets up with individual clients and has 'programmes'
of singing and dancing for mostly overseas clients - mainly
from Dubai. |
| |
| But these six female sex workers have probably
no idea of the huge role they have played in their neighbourhood,
of breaking the silence surrounding HIV/AIDS. |
| |
| Out of 168 female sex workers, 158 decided to
come to the primary health clinic, run by Greenstar, for voluntary
testing for HIV/AIDS. And that is not all. The Sindh AIDS Control
Programme has given each 158 of them a clean bill for HIV --
at least for now. |
| |
| ''Of course we had heard of HIV/AIDS (through
television mostly) before these people came and told us,'' says
Janat. |
| |
| But she says the early messages were not clear.
|
| |
| ''For instance, we didn't know we could get it,
we perceived it to be a "western disease". We had
no idea it could be transmitted through used syringes or that
it can be transmitted to unborn and suckling babies,'' adds
Janat. |
| |
| All the six female sex workers who now work as
peer outreach workers -- as they are known in the development
jargon -- find their job of visiting house-to-house ''difficult
and at times embarrassing.'' |
| |
| ''It's not easy to visit your relatives and talk
about condoms, teaching them the art of negotiating about the
use of condom with their clients or convincing them that it
is alright to go to the doctor and get treated for STIs,'' says
Janat. |
| |
| ''But it gets easier with time,'' adds Mariam,
who has acquired a new-found confidence in herself. |
| |
| ''My friends and relatives tease me and call
me Dr. Mariam. I feel good that I'm doing something positive
for my community,'' she beams. |
| |
| |
| © Inter Press Service. The feature may
not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations or its
agencies. |
| |
| Inter Press Service (IPS), a leading
news agency, was set up in 1964 as a non-profit international
cooperative of journalists. In 1994, in order to strengthen
its non-profit identity, IPS changed its legal status to that
of a 'public-benefit organisation for development cooperation',
open to journalists, professional communicators and bodies active
in the fields of information and communication. |
| |
| |
| Previous
Features |
| |
| |
| |
| |
| |
