Women Making a Difference

From Sex Worker to Outreach Worker

	Outreach workers attending a training course in Kyrgyzstan. Source: USAID

How A Single Mother Uses Her Experience To Help Others

Anna is from a small town in Kyrgyzstan. She was a commercial sex worker for seven years in order to make a living to provide for her children. With help from the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) Dialogue on HIV and TB Project, Anna was able to turn her life around and has become a strong advocate and outreach worker. She helps others who are in similar situations to hers.

“Poverty forced me to get out, earn money and make a living for myself when I was still young. My parents passed away on almost the same day, and during that difficult period, my husband left me with two small children and not a penny to my name. I couldn’t afford to buy food or pay the electricity and gas bills. The ongoing problems of poverty, hunger and cold led me to the sex industry. Seeing the starved eyes of my little children, I threw away my doubt and hesitation and became a street walker – a sex worker. I drank to forget my troubles, the shame I felt for myself and my children, and the fear I felt because of my neighbors. I began to drink more and more. One day my ’well-wishers,’ as I call my neighbors, wanted to deprive me of my parental guardianship and take my kids away from me. At that point, I got really scared.

“Soon I was given the opportunity to attend a training course for outreach workers organized by the USAID Dialogue on HIV and TB Project. After the course, participants are invited to work as outreach workers for the HIV and TB prevention program for sex workers. Although I was skeptical, I decided to attend the training.

Participants at a training course for outreach workers. Source: USAID

“I knew the problems of sex workers from the inside, so when the trainers told us about the sex industry, the problems sex workers encounter, and how those problems could be resolved, I decided that if I was offered a position doing outreach work, I absolutely had to take it so that I could help other girls avoid the health problems and HIV infection.  

“In the beginning, I worked as a volunteer at the USAID Dialogue on HIV and TB Project. Later, I became an outreach worker. Now, I feel like I’m a member of society – that I’m part of a society that hadn’t let me in before. Now, I see that I am useful to others, and my self-esteem has improved. I facilitate educational sessions for sex workers. The sex workers respect me because I help them get medical services and escort them to friendly doctors.  

“USAID Dialogue on HIV and TB Project has changed my life. I have given up drinking, and my social circle has changed entirely. Two months after I started working as an outreach worker, I decided to quit sex work. The quality of my life has improved. Now, my children and I are a harmonious family.

"I want to help people, and I am really grateful to the USAID Dialogue on HIV and TB Project. It helped me change my life!"

Story provided by USAID Dialogue on HIV and TB Project.

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