Wanyenda’s* ordeal dates back to 1997 when she was in her third year at the Igawilo primary school in the Mbeya region of the southern highlands of Tanzania. Only 13 at that time, she decided to drop out of school and leave home, like many of her friends before her, to escape difficult living conditions.
She is the first born of a peasant family of six children -- two boys and four girls. Igawilo is one of the densely populated suburban areas where the incidence of prostitution involving children is high.
It happened one day when she was going to school and met a boy from a nearby village who persuaded her to escort him to the town where he lived. This boy, who was jobless, took her to a slum area called Mabatini and she never came back.
The boy would bring home two or three of his friends and force Wanyenda to sleep with all of them for cash payment. She was tortured, sexually abused and sometimes beaten by the boy if she refused to provide the services. Whenever the boy was away, she received customers on her own in order to earn some money for food.
"Such life was routine for a period of 18 months. I was weak, hurt and tormented," she recalls.
Life for Wanyenda at Mabatini became unbearable. After 18 months she decided to leave. Not knowing where to go, she began wandering the streets. There she met other girls her age who took her to a brothel.
Together they would leave the brothel each morning and go out to bars, guest houses, and local-brew shops to seek their fortune. According to Wanyenda, in these places they would drink and subsequently have sex with any man, sometimes for little more in return than offers of food or drink.
When Wanyenda was asked how much she earned daily, she said "between Tshs. 200 - 500 (US$ 0.25 - 0.60) and sometimes nothing but a drink."
IPEC Support Helps Rescue Girls from Prostitution
Wanyenda’s life took a dramatic turn for the better in 1999, when her mother persuaded her to accept counseling services from a local charity, supported by IPEC, which helps girls who have been withdrawn from prostitution.
Wanyenda is now among the 360 girls who have been taken out of child prostitution by an IPEC partner organization, the Kiota Women’s Health and Development (KIWOHEDE). This non-governmental organization, active in the promotion of women and children’s health and development, as well as advocacy for their rights, runs centers for the rehabilitation and vocational skills training of girls withdrawn from prostitution in four wards of the Mbeya Municipal District.
In the Igawilo ward, Wanyenda was one of some 80 girls targeted by KIWOHEDE when the agency was implementing an IPEC-supported project that included the social and physical mapping of Tanzania’s Southern Highlands region of Mbeya to find out how many young girls ended up in prostitution. Having heard about the organization, her mother, with the help of fellow village women, convinced her to go for the counseling services that KIWOHEDE was providing.
"She had to be treated for gonorrhea twice during her rehabilitation period," says Ms. Justa Mwaituka, Executive Director of KIWOHEDE. "Most of these girls suffer from sexually transmitted diseases and are vulnerable to HIV/AIDS because they practice unsafe sex."
The girls reached by this project are now undergoing rehabilitation and recovering from the trauma they experienced. They follow group and individual counseling, as well as instruction on the dangers of prostitution, reproductive health education and HIV/AIDS counseling. They have a community theater group for public awareness raising on the problem of child prostitution, and Wanyenda is an active member.
"We do not want girls to be sexually exploited by men, we do not want unwanted early pregnancies and sexually transmitted diseases," Wanyenda was heard telling her colleagues at the center.
So far, a total of 240 girls from Igawilo, Ruanda, Iyunga and Nzovwe wards in Mbeya Municipality have completed a three-month training course in tailoring, embroidery, cooking, tie and dye, driving and setting up a small businesses. An additional 40 girls have been reintegrated into formal primary school.
The Igawilo center has already registered important achievements. Individual and collective tenders for making dresses, school uniforms, tablecloths, etc. are flowing in. The Mbeya Municipality is helping with marketing by integrating the display and sale of products into its fund-raising plans. Following the sale of the items, the money is divided among the girls. Each of them receives between Tshs. 8,000 - 12,000 (US$ 10.00 - 15.00), depending on the proceeds from the sales. Such sales are held two or three times every month.
Wanyenda Looks to the Future
Wanyenda said that after receiving her tailoring certificate from KIWOHEDE, she prays to God that she does not go back to prostitution and hopes to continue educating other girls at risk of getting into prostitution. She is a good counselor and trainer at the community counseling center, where she and two other friends assist with its running under the auspices of KIWOHEDE.
"KIWOHEDE has changed my life really. It has withdrawn and reintegrated me within my family and community set up. We now live as a happy family. I appreciate the gains of knowledge acquired," she said.
Now 17, Wayneda makes sure that she manages her time productively. She is busy at the center which is a only few meters from her home; on Sundays she goes for prayers in the Church. The rest of her time she is at home helping her parents or counselling girls in the neighborhood against prostitution.
Her dream is to generate enough funds in order to buy a plot of land and build a house. She also wants to be involved in efforts to establish counseling and rehabilitation clubs for girl victims of prostitution in the communities.
Ms. Mwaituka admits that girls like Wanyenda need immediate humanitarian interventions such as grants for income generation as a means to increase the cash incomes of poor parents and families.
Whenever Wanyenda sees Justa she is mute. "I thank KIWOHEDE for changing my life," she will say at last, "I have found a new life."
*not the child's real name
