Health and Welness
It was an exiting day for few survivor members who learn t on how to upload the website.
it was so interesting to learn new technologies , how to write stories and upload to the website, this is something we have been longing to know for a long time, thanks to Rebecca for being so impatient with us so that we can learn at our pees , GOD BLESS YOU BECKY.
It was a very happy day for the sex workers children who gathered at survivor’s office to discuss ways to be good role models in the society.
The inaugural forum was meant to bring together children of sex workers to educate them on how to address the challenges they undergo and also to become good role models, it organized by the Survivor’s organization in collaboration with APHIAplus the facilitators were Bramwell Siku from APHIAplus and Joseph Arango L.V.C.T. It was a new beginning where they learnt new skills on how to become role models in the future community. There were two sessions, morning and afternoon session.
The day began by a self introduction from the children then the facilitators introduced themselves, the facilitators took through life skills and also the challenges that the children of sex workers go through below are some of the challenges the children go though
i) Abuse from the community
ii) Abuse from fellow children
iii) Isolation by neighbors
iv) Church leaders
v) Lack of school fees
vi) Low self esteem
After they shared their challenges, they were told to write what they could like to be in future, majority were for being teachers, some wanted to be doctors, judges, nurses ,pastors, lawyers, police, president, mps, pilots, governors,senetors, ward representatives and also prominent business people.
This was conducted during the first session where by they went for lunch which was organized at the office.
After lunch the young ones were dismissed paving way for counseling session for the older ones who were at the age of puberty. This session helped the organization to know some of the challenges that the adolescent face due to their mothers being sex workers. After the session, they dispersed with a promise from the counselors to do a follow up session with the children.
On 30th September, 2014 the sex workers called for a stakeholders meeting with their lawyer to address the challenges they face. Among the invited were;
• Club bouncers
• Health care providers,
• Sex workers
• Security guards
• Boda boda operators
• Bar managers
• Receptionists
• Lawyer
• Police officers
The meeting was to address some of the violations of sex workers rights that had been reported to the office which included, harassment by the bouncers from the club, rape cases by boda bodas, sex workers being sent away from bars with claims they do not want parking ladies, stigma from the community and especially the health care providers and finally police arrests and seeking for bribes.
Experience sharing from specific sex workers drove the message home which in turn touched the hearts of the invited guests who promised to provide support and be nice to sex workers. The touching story was of a particular bar which is a hot spot and he had banned sex workers from waiting for clients there, he agreed to support sex workers and lifted the ban. He even requested we help him locate one sex worker who had stolen from a client at the same bar of which we agreed to do so as long as we get the details of the girl.
Finally the meeting came to an end with a positive impact where every gate keeper promised to give support, the boda boda chairman gave out his contacts plus the ones for the security personnel to be called anytime a sex worker is in danger, the health care provider also gave his contact and agreed to treat the sex workers anytime they are at the health facility, the receptionists also agreed not to be selling the free condoms at the dispensers to the sex workers and finally the sex workers promised to be disciplined and stop stealing from clients!
We sex workers of Busia believe in our slogan of “condom is good all the time and all the time condom is good and that is our nature”! Surprisingly, we are not living to our slogan due to inadequate supply of condoms.
Our main condom supplier who are PS-Kenya together with the ministry of health have not been able to make the necessary deliveries for the past three months, which has made it impossible for sex workers to carry on with their business smoothly. To some extent, a few condom dispensers have been spotted having used sanitary pads and black notes due to being without condoms for long.
We have reached out to our partners who include; Ampath-plus, Busia wellness centre and the public health office but they also sing the same song like us ‘they do not have enough condoms’ they are waiting for new stock!
Kindly we are appealing to other partners and organization out there, who could be having some in store to help us please!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
One evening CHRISTABEL a sex worker in Busia County went out on business at Governors lounge which is one of the hot spots where sex workers get clients in busia town. As usual, she got to the hot spot and after a short while got her first client JACK who they agreed on the price of a shot and later went to Florida guest house for business.
Upon reaching the guest house they got down to business as they had agreed. Normally a shot takes about 15mins but this went on and on and on, until Christabel was wondering when it was going to end. After a long wait that never came to an end Jack decide to use his fingers when his dick had failed him.
This was even worse than the act itself, he finger fucked the lady until she started to bleed, Christabel couldn’t take it anymore that’s when she decided to call for help, she managed to send a text to her fellow sex workers who came to her rescue.
Sex workers who came were paralegals they talked to the security personnel and together they went and knocked on the door, the client opened the door and Christabel was released and jack was forced to pay double the amount and also paid for the damage he had caused.
The names used are not the true names of the victims
On 27/9/ 2014, survivors’ organization conducted HTC services in Busia town at Holiday Inn, in partnership with APHIA PLUS WESTERN KENYA. The aim of the HTC service was to test both the MSMs and FSWs so that they may know their status.
The activity started at 6pm where by the 8 mobilizes went round giving information on the importance of knowing one’s status. We managed to provide services to 113 (female 34 then male 79). We also managed to distribute 353 condoms. Surprisingly the majority of those who came for the test were MSMs; this means that the MSMs are out to know their status which is very good.
Mobilization team did their best to ensure the right and positive information was well facilitated.
Achievements
.We managed to reach a quite number of people
. Right and clear positive information on correct and consistent condom use was well spread.
Challenges
Having 10 counselors’ our target was 150 clients in which we were unable to reach .
It started raining early thus lead to low turn up of clients.
In September, peer educators from Survivors Busia conducted two trainings, targeting Female Sex Workers (FSWs) and Men who have Sex with Men (MSMs) for Splash inside out and Sister to sister projects.
The Splash inside out was for the both FSWs and MSMs Peer educators while the Sister to Sister was for the FSWs only. The trainings were each for three days and the aim was to refresh the peer educator’s memory and enable them disseminate quality information to the peers.
The sister to sister project is a new intervention that seeks to address the needs of sex workers through one on one basis within duration of 45 minutes. The intervention has all the steps required which involves risk assessment, health education, condom negotiation skills, condom demonstration and finally referral for bio-medical services.
The highlight of the training was about the reporting tools which have been a problem to some of the peer educators and needed time to be taken through to make reporting easy and also be able to collect quality data. Another highlight is that the training pave way for replacement of some peer educators who had changed town. New peer educators were trained to fill the gaps. The six days were full of group work discussions, presentation and active participation by all members.
At the end of the training the members left while happy and were given reporting tools and transport as motivation and headed straight to the hot spot for the moonlight HTC outreach to mobilize their peers and clients for the service.
For the past one year, the Survivors Busia team has been engaging in training on how to use technology to help the members engage more with the community and law enforcement.
The community organization, mainly composed of sex workers has made been engaging police officers, clients and sex workers in Busia on ways to safeguard their rights and fostering deeper understanding of some of the problems.
Busia is a border town between Kenya and Uganda and the truck drivers form majority of the clientele. Given the international and cross border challenges, Survivors has been looking for new ways to raise awareness on some of the challenges and prejudices facing sex workers.
With the improved connectivity, sex workers are finding clients of Facebook, social media, or sex work websites, which has made reporting more complicated, in cases of abuse or violence.
The development of online forums has led to challenges similar to “offline” problems and this has provided another forum for Survivors to engage with more people.
Understanding digital and social media opportunities and challenges has become a priority for Survivors Busia members, which led to the training.
After lessons on email, opening social media accounts and updating them, developing and uploading content, the team is now ready to start uploading its content on the website.
The training is usually conducted in groups owing to the team spirit at Survivors Busia; we like to uplift each other 🙂 There has also been shortage of computers and as the organisation grows, we hope to advance technologically.