Stolen lives: Children in sex work suffer GBV

Hazel Marimbiza

About two months back, just outside a hotel situated on the periphery of Bulawayo’s Central Business District, a brood of young girls were standing in a single file along the hotel’s precast security wall where they were hollering at would-be clients.

Their faces were pale from face powder and make-up coupled with tight skimpy clothes that leave nothing to imagination. They openly but alertly touted their services to passersby.

Upon entering the hotel, one could not help but take a look at their surroundings. More minors in scanty skirts, in lace tops, in glittering dresses and in shorts could be seen milling around. One man quickly advanced towards one of the girls. He drew his brows and wrinkled his forehead and got close to her and slid his arms around her waist.

Tight lips, stillness and gazes are what the young girl first gave this man, then she told him to leave her alone. This somehow provoked him to anger and he started shouting.

He slapped her twice — first on the left cheek, then on the right cheek, then spit in her face.

Patrons stamped palms on their lips in alarm and watched helplessly as the angry man clutched the helpless girl’s throat. He hammered her head on the wall. He dragged her and knocked her head against a rack. Then he strode out, leaving her lying helplessly on the floor, blood trickling from her forehead and mouth. A few good Samaritans rushed to the girl as she scrunched on the floor and coiled on her side while her laps nudged against each other. The pink dress she wore was torn and stained with blood.

It took less effort to get Sindie, 16, (not her real name), who was impatiently awaiting the arrival of her regular client to blurt out the complexities associated with gender-based violence (GBV) and minors in sex work.

“That is just one of the many abuses we face as a sex workers,” she said.

Sindie stays in Cowdray Park, Bulawayo with her two siblings. Being the eldest she makes sure she raises money to pay rent, buy food and pay school fees for her siblings.

“My mother and father died when I was 13 years old, so at 14, I decided to sell sex so that I could look after my siblings. The money I get helps me a lot because one of my siblings is in Grade Six and the other in Form One so I use some of it to pay their school fees.

Although she sometimes gets money to cater for her needs, she has suffered lots of abuses.

“Most times clients agree to use condoms but when I get to their house they refuse to use the condom, and they offer me extra money. I end up indulging in unprotected sex because I need the money, but the most painful thing is that at times after having unprotected sex they don’t give me the promised money.

“Sometimes I get raped and beaten, and in that moment I can’t free myself because the clients just overpower me,” said Sindie.

Of all the depravities that afflict humankind, the most shocking is GBV on children in sex work. As with most criminal enterprises, determining the scale of this atrocity is impossible but it’s clear that GBV of minors in sex work is common.

Ms Kudakwashe Kunze, director at Women Association of Survivors (WAS), said when she counsels countless victims of GBV so many minors in sex work narrate unbelievable horrendous experiences to her.

Centre for Sexual Health and HIV/Aids Research Zimbabwe (CeSHHAR) programmes director, Mrs Sibongile Mtetwa, raised similar concerns saying stigmatisation and discrimination are some of the major barriers faced by young sex workers.

Mrs Mtetwa revealed that minors in sex work were being abused by their clients.

The 2018 Sadc Regional Strategy on HIV prevention and Sexual and Reproductive Health Rights (RHR) among key populations recognises the abuses of young sex workers and their plights but has done little to remove stigma barriers faced by young sex workers.

The scourge of GBV on child sex workers has left virtually no part of the country untouched but some parts of Zimbabwe have emerged as hubs of this illicit practice.

According to research GBV on minors in sex work is mostly common particularly in border towns such as Beitbridge, Plumtree or Chirundu where long-distance truck drivers normally camp for days while clearing their loads. The same happens on some major highways such as the Hwange-Victoria Falls highway and some business centres along major highways where long-distance truck drivers take their rest overnight such as Ngundu Business Centre along the Harare-Beitbridge highway.

Other such areas along the Harare-Masvingo-Beitbridge highway are Mhandamabwe turn-off where truckers sleep, the Runde River Truck-Inn stop, Rutenga Business Centre and Lutumba Business Centre among others. Sex work along the highways is normally mobile where the young sex workers move from one business centre to the other in search of new clients. All these areas share the misfortune of seeing several girls who are into sex work being victims of GBV.

According to a frequently cited study by the International Labour Organisation, more than a million children are victims of sexual GBV.

Because detecting child sex work is difficult, the report conceded that the actual toll is unknown, but numbers reported or estimated, however, imperfect, point to a high volume of GBV on minors in sex work.

The most recent Global Report on children who are victims of sexual abuse, issued by the United Nations Office, found that the number of victims reported by countries rose from fewer than 15 000 in 2010 to nearly 25 000 in 2016. These statistics represent only a fraction of the actual victims as many are never detected.

After suffering GBV, those who are fortunate enough to be rescued, must fend for themselves as they usually receive little help from their impoverished or embarrassed families.

Several non-profit organisations run programmes to rehabilitate victims of GBV in the hope that they might be able to reunite with their families, overcome social stigma and build decent lives for themselves. It is a fact that before these girls venture into sex work, they would have nurtured the aspirations of teenagers such as to excel at school, to find a decent job, to find love and to start living out their dreams.

Most of them are naive about the world and can’t even imagine the cruelties it has in store.

In an interview, one of the child sex workers, Unelo, 17, revealed the dreams she once had.

“Being a sex worker is one of those means of survival. Before my mother died I often dreamt of a great future. I dreamt of being a doctor or a lawyer but when my mother died, I dragged myself out of such fantasies. Life’s challenges swept away my dreams. Now I have to face reality,” said Unelo.

She mentioned the abuses she has encountered with some clients.

“Some don’t want to use protection. Like one client who didn’t want me or him to use a condom. While arguing he asked why I should protect myself when I am already dirty,” she said.

Unelo added that the insults she gets from clients often ring in her ears like a chapel bell.

“Clients have no idea that we’ve been through a lot, they just abuse us and the abuse can be really tormenting,” she said.

Many of these minors have to keep on enduring GBV which results from sex work because of financial struggles.

“They are in a lot of trouble,” Ms Bathabile Nyathi, the Ambassador for Women Against All Forms of Discrimination (WAAD) said. “Because sex work means risking your life at times.”

The WAAD organisation, made up of Zimbabwe’s current and former sex workers, is calling on Government to support these minors in sex work.

“Nobody wants to be abused or to be a child sex worker,” said Ms Nyathi.

“But without access to financial support, some are forced to continue working, meeting clients and putting themselves at risk of being beaten and worse still losing their lives. There are many child sex workers whom I used to know but they just disappeared. Only God knows if they are still alive,” she added.

As if the destruction of young lives alone is not enough, the tragedy of minors in sex work is that nobody seems to care. Among all the sexual offences that are committed on children globally, minors in sex work receive the least attention from policy makers, law and order authorities, NGOs in the child rights sector and even more tragic, the society where the children live.

Ms Kunze said their plight is worsened by the fact that society labels them promiscuous.

“These girls are afraid to talk about GBV issues that they encounter because we are quick to judge them as promiscuous. So many young girls in sex work have been sacrificed by clients,” said Ms Kunze.

Mr Bonlam Machiha, a youth pararelgal at Justice For Children Trust said many organisations avoid helping child sex workers because they don’t want to clash with the law.

“The problem is most organisations cannot legally provide support services to people under 18 years old because it is seen as encouraging ‘prostitution’ or the trafficking of minors and may bring the organisation into conflict with the law, said Mr Machiha.

He added: “Society generally abhors sex work as an immoral choice that one makes and in the same light, views child sex work with the same lens. As soon as society attaches the description “prostitute” to a person, it instinctively blinds itself to the person’s age even if it is a very young girl involved in the practice. All society sees is the immorality and delinquency inherent in the act and therefore instinctively becomes unwilling to be associated.”

According to research, society instantly forgets that these are the same girls who once played with Barbies and held tight to teddy bears, but now find themselves in cars, performing sexual acts on men old enough to be their fathers. As such, instead of seeing the children as victims of sexual abuse and exploitation mainly a result of their poverty, these children are generally seen as “willing participants’ and therefore ‘victims by choice’.

Since laws and programmes to combat the practice and to assist the child sex workers as victims of sexual abuse and exploitation are very minimal, the child sex workers, being children as they are, continue to see no other alternative than to continue in their trade thereby creating a vicious cycle of GBV.

“Governments therefore need to do much more to support rescued victims so that they are empowered,” said Mr Machiha.