Foundation Culls Commercial Sex Workers off  Streets

By Adedayo Akinwale in Abuja

As parts of its effort to get more commercial sex workers off the streets and give them a better means of livelihood, a Non-Governmental Organisation, the Wanda Adu Foundation has embarked on free skills acquisition program  for commercial sex workers.

The Founder, Ms. Wanda Ebe gave the hint yesterday in Abuja during a town hall meeting with some commercial sex workers willing and ready to engage in another means of livelihood.

According to her, “the foundation is about giving vulnerable, marginalised and abused young women and girls a voice. It is a town hall meeting for female sex workers, we have gone round to bring together sex workers; brothel based and non-brothel based street girls. The essence of this is to let them know that prostitution is not the only option to make money. I feel that they can explore other means of making money other than sex work.”

Ebe added that, “we are here to let them know that whatever skills they have they should work on it, they should use the skill and if they don’t have any skill we are willing to transfer skills to them free so that they can have a means of livelihood, if it is hair making, baking, fashion and designing, we are willing to teach them free, we have experts in the house, so that we reduce the number of sex workers.”

She explained that her experience in life spurred her to establish the foundation having suffered from domestic violence, child molestation and even rape.

Ebe stressed: “My experience in life, have being through a lot, I suffered infant molestation, rape, domestic violence and this things can actually drive a woman to be vulnerable and just drive you to do anything that is not right, but have been able to come out of it.  

But I feel that since I have come out of it I can still go back, I have a world, there are girls out there who do not know better, I can educate them and empower them instead of keeping to myself like everything is all right when everything is not alright.”

She noted that though the foundation was still very young, it has been able to empower 12 people, while still seeking for financial assistance and partners to be able to empower more.

Ebe called on men to stop patronising sex workers, stressing that there must be a behavioural change to address the problem.

“Behavioural change is for everybody not for only sex workers, I don’t want to come here to tell the girls to leave the streets without telling the men to stop patronising them.  Men need to stop patronising these girls on the streets”, she stressed.

One of the sex workers, Esther Ibaoche, who commended the Foundation for the programme, said she was forced into prostitution because of hardship.

“Hardship forced me into it, I was doing business before but Taskforce never allow us to rest; I was roasting corn, but they will take us to their office and you will pay, or sometime they pack our business. I was selling bread and it was the same thing.

“I earned more money now but the risk is high, they have raped me so many times and I have been into many ritualists hands but I believe is just God that made me to escape,” she recounted her ordeals.