Conclusion
The sex workers who participated in this study value their faith and actively participate in their respective religious institutions. Despite the fact that their religions preach against adultery and fornication, the women continue in the sex trade because they feel they have no other option and believe they cannot support their families if they refrain from participating in sex work. According to the women, they receive no assistance from their religious leaders, though many of them admitted that they do not feel comfortable revealing the nature of their circumstances and work to their religious leaders. The women greatly value their religious teachings but feel trapped by their circumstances and believe that their religious leaders will chase them away if they find out how the women support themselves and their families.
The sex workers who contributed to this study participate in politics actively. 77% of the women have registered to vote and 68% of them actually vote during elections. Sex workers have organized themselves to vote as a group in order to get a particular candidate into office but have not yet tried to pressure an incumbent politician into voting in their favor. The women told me that the main reason for this failure to pressure incumbent politicians stems from the fact that they find it very difficult to reveal that they are sex workers. They believe that they will risk too much if they tell a politician that they as sex workers will not vote him or her into office again unless he or she passes legislation which favors them or opposes legislation which will affect their lives negatively. Though sex workers participate in politics individually, they find it difficult to organize themselves as a group because this would require them to be open about their status as sex workers.
From this study, it seems that the organizations which aim to rehabilitate sex workers do not sufficiently cater to the needs of the women. Admittedly, I did not have the opportunity to actually speak to representatives from these organizations so this study only represents the views and opinions of sex workers. According to the women, these organizations do not have outreach programs which advertise the training or services they provide and are therefore inaccessible to sex workers. In terms of finances, the organizations have unrealistic expectations about how successful sex workers can be with the amount of start-up capital they provide. Lastly, the organizations require that the women provide money or securities such as land titles in order to enroll in their programs, and often sex workers do not have the requisite amount of money or type of documents. Rehabilitative organizations do not make themselves accessible to their target population and have unrealistic financial expectations of sex workers.
Other than preaching to sex workers, religious leaders do not provide services specifically for this population. Their institutions provide services such as HIV/AIDS testing which may cater to the needs of sex workers among other people, but no religious leader mentioned that they provide tangible, material assistance to sex workers specifically. Additionally, no forum for dialogue exists between religious leaders and sex workers, though all mentioned that they preach to this population and their institutions offer counseling to anybody who wants to be counseled.
A large discrepancy exists between how political leaders at top levels of government and the grassroots level of government perceive sex workers and the state’s responsibilities toward this population. The top level government official from the Ministry of Ethics and Integrity understood that many sex workers participate in this trade because they believe they have no other way to support themselves while both LC 1s viewed sex workers as lazy people looking for easy money. In a similar fashion, the representative from the Ministry of Ethics and Integrity asserted that the state has an obligation to rehabilitate sex workers while both LC 1s said that the government should do nothing to assist sex workers. Officials at higher levels of government better understand the difficulties sex workers face and perceive these women in a more sympathetic manner than officials at the grassroots level.
The sex workers who contributed to this study participate in politics actively. 77% of the women have registered to vote and 68% of them actually vote during elections. Sex workers have organized themselves to vote as a group in order to get a particular candidate into office but have not yet tried to pressure an incumbent politician into voting in their favor. The women told me that the main reason for this failure to pressure incumbent politicians stems from the fact that they find it very difficult to reveal that they are sex workers. They believe that they will risk too much if they tell a politician that they as sex workers will not vote him or her into office again unless he or she passes legislation which favors them or opposes legislation which will affect their lives negatively. Though sex workers participate in politics individually, they find it difficult to organize themselves as a group because this would require them to be open about their status as sex workers.
From this study, it seems that the organizations which aim to rehabilitate sex workers do not sufficiently cater to the needs of the women. Admittedly, I did not have the opportunity to actually speak to representatives from these organizations so this study only represents the views and opinions of sex workers. According to the women, these organizations do not have outreach programs which advertise the training or services they provide and are therefore inaccessible to sex workers. In terms of finances, the organizations have unrealistic expectations about how successful sex workers can be with the amount of start-up capital they provide. Lastly, the organizations require that the women provide money or securities such as land titles in order to enroll in their programs, and often sex workers do not have the requisite amount of money or type of documents. Rehabilitative organizations do not make themselves accessible to their target population and have unrealistic financial expectations of sex workers.
Other than preaching to sex workers, religious leaders do not provide services specifically for this population. Their institutions provide services such as HIV/AIDS testing which may cater to the needs of sex workers among other people, but no religious leader mentioned that they provide tangible, material assistance to sex workers specifically. Additionally, no forum for dialogue exists between religious leaders and sex workers, though all mentioned that they preach to this population and their institutions offer counseling to anybody who wants to be counseled.
A large discrepancy exists between how political leaders at top levels of government and the grassroots level of government perceive sex workers and the state’s responsibilities toward this population. The top level government official from the Ministry of Ethics and Integrity understood that many sex workers participate in this trade because they believe they have no other way to support themselves while both LC 1s viewed sex workers as lazy people looking for easy money. In a similar fashion, the representative from the Ministry of Ethics and Integrity asserted that the state has an obligation to rehabilitate sex workers while both LC 1s said that the government should do nothing to assist sex workers. Officials at higher levels of government better understand the difficulties sex workers face and perceive these women in a more sympathetic manner than officials at the grassroots level.