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Learning to Prevent AIDS
FrontLines - November 2009
NAMPULA, Mozambique—
It’s Friday night in this northern
city and five young women are
standing on a dark side street
waiting for male customers to
come by.
“Those are the prostitutes we
are working with,” said an aid
worker, calling out to one of
them to come and explain how
aid is helping them.
Katia*, 24, walks over to
explain. She is one of the sex
workers who has received help from USAID and learned how to
protect herself and her customers.
An NGO supported by
USAID—Population Services
International (PSI)—“explained
to me about the importance of
using condoms to prevent disease,”
she said.
“They [the NGO staff]
advised me to use both male and
female condoms. The men
accept this.”
Since as much as 16 percent
of the adult population in
Mozambique is HIV positive—
along with a considerable number
of small children who got
HIV from their mothers at
birth—the protective measures
Katia takes could save her life
as well as the men who are her
clients.
Not only does the USAID-funded
program train her to protect
herself, she is trained to teach the
other sex workers how to prevent
the spread of disease. She also has
learned how to avoid physical
abuse. “They told us to be calm
and not to respond with aggressiveness,”
she said. “It works.”
Katia wears an ID card that
says “100 percent Life” in
Portuguese—identifying her as
a counselor for her fellow sex
workers and clients.
She receives $40 a month to
be an educator. The other
women listen to her advice, she
said, but the men are often only
interested in sex.
“My dream is to study more
but I have no possibility,” she
said. “I’m the oldest of five children,
my father is dead, and my
mother has no work.”
She charges as little as $2
and as much as $20 for sex,
depending on how much the
men can afford to pay, she said.
The USAID program has
trained 23 sex workers as
counselors in Nampula City
and nearby towns. Each one
has on average 80 conversations
a month with one to three
people for a total of up to
4,700 contacts a month—all
aimed at stopping the spread of
HIV/AIDS and protecting the
health and lives of both women
and men.
★
*Last name has been withheld
for privacy reasons.
FrontLines is published
by the Bureau for Legislative and Public Affairs
U.S. Agency for International Development
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Material should be submitted
by mail to Editor, FrontLines, USAID,
RRB, Suite 6.10, Washington, DC 20523-6100;
by FAX to 202-216-3035; or by e-mail to frontlines@usaid.gov
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