Deperate fordrevne kvinder i Burundi vil gøre hvad som helst, også sælge usikker sex, for at flygte fra levevilkårene i Sabe, en forstad til Bujumbura, skrive FNs nyhedstjeneste Irin tirsdag.
Flere end 480 internt fordrevne familier har i adskillige år levet i Sabe.
BUJUMBURA, 26 April 2011: Burundi has more than 100.000 internally displaced persons, IDPs, as a result of several years of political turmoil; most of the families in Sabe are returnees from neighbouring countries.
“I know cases of parents whose daughters go into town or elsewhere every night to look for money from men who offer big money [for sex],” Ferdianne Bukuru, vice-president of the Sabe IDP site, told IRIN/PlusNews. “Young girls are attracted by wealthy men and are drawn into prostitution as IDPs have no means to survive.”
For many of these girls and women, the fear of hiv is dwarfed by the immediate need for money to buy food and other necessities.
“Do not talk of aids… I don’t fear [it]; I would rather get food and die in the future instead of dying hungry today,” said 18-year-old Jacqueline. “I have been at this site since 1993; nobody has come to help me to improve my life and especially go back to school.”
Madeleine, 32, feels the same way. “When I came across a man who feeds me and clothes me, I must accept, for food,” she said. “Who can refuse a large sum of money when she is in poverty like this?”
Madeleine said NGOs fighting hiv/aids visited the site occasionally, but not enough to have an impact on people’s behaviour. Condom use – perceived to be less profitable than unprotected sex – is not as consistent as it should be.
“Condoms do not allow us to have enough money; if a man offers his money, he insists on intercourse without a condom,” said one 17-year-old student.
Women who do not turn to sex work often wind up becoming second or third wives to the few men in the site who are able to support more than one wife.
