Marthe
is 25 years old. This elegant young woman with a charming smile
is a ‘fille libre’, as women who engage in sex work
are called in Cameroon. We met her at the Henry Dunant health
centre in the city centre of the capital Yaoundé, where
she is a regular visitor.
Dr Emmanuel Mbog’s team is there to receive her. The health
centre, which is run by the Cameroon Red Cross Society, is one
of the only places in Yaoundé where young women like
her can see a doctor discreetly and, if they want, be tested
for HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases.
After seeing the doctor, Marthe also meets with Mrs Owono Ndi
Edwige, the social worker who provides psychological support,
if necessary, and health advice. If the doctor orders tests,
she has to go to the laboratory too. “So far, my tests
have come back negative,” says Marthe happily, although
she is well aware of the risks that her occupation entails.
Marthe found out about the Henry Dunant health centre through
Club des amis de la Prudence peer educators, many of whom used
to be ‘filles libres’ themselves. Late at night,
they go to the red-light district in Yaoundé, where dozens
of sex workers gather after dark. For some time, Marthe decided
to start the process of leaving prostitution. She managed to
become involved in a microproject, starting up a small business
selling food supplies, which earns her enough to feed her child
and for basic necessities.
Marthe is also trying to convince other women to come to the
Cameroon Red Cross Society health centre, which often gives
educational talks, where peer educators offer advice to both
men and women.
“Some of these women come from rural areas thinking that
they will find a good job in the big city,” explains Dr
Viviane Nzeusseu, health coordinator for Central Africa at the
International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies,
which supports this project.
“In reality, their financial situation means that they
often have no choice but to sell their bodies to help their
families survive,” she adds.
After Yaoundé, the Filles Libres project was extended
to Douala, Cameroon’s commercial capital. Teams of three
volunteers (a peer educator, a former ‘fille libre’
and a person living with HIV) walk around the city’s red-light
districts to make contact with sex workers and raise their awareness
about the importance of getting tested and insisting on the
systematic use of condoms by clients.
It is thanks to a meeting with one of these teams of Cameroon
Red Cross Society volunteers in Douala that 23-year-old Jennifer
began the process of getting off the street. She was able to
earn money in a different way, thanks to a microproject that
she became involved in. “The women can come discreetly
to the training centre, located at the Douala Red Cross regional
branch, and be trained in dressmaking or hairdressing,”
she explains.
Although the project mainly targets sex workers, it also endeavours
to raise the awareness of their clients, with a view to curbing
the growing practice of sex workers being asked to have sexual
intercourse without a condom, in exchange for double or triple
the usual price.
Peer educators use theatre for this purpose. The Douala Red
Cross theatre troupe, which includes people living with HIV
and former sex workers, performs in nightclubs. For a few minutes,
the strip show is interrupted to make way for the Red Cross
troupe, who make the audience laugh by performing sketches from
everyday life, which convey a prevention message that gets through
to clients.
“For every ‘fille libre’, there is also a
‘homme libre’, that is, the client,” observes
Julbert Tonye, Secretary General of the Cameroon Red Cross Society,
who is one of the project's founders. “When you consider
that a sex worker might have an average of three clients a night
and that our prevention campaigns reach a thousand such women,
we are having an indirect impact on another three thousand people
at least,” he continues.
To date, 2,000 women have benefited from the programme. A total
of 5,300 information sessions have been organized, focusing
on prevention and the fight against discrimination in more than
100 different places, led by about 100 educators. The project
will be extended to Bertoua and to other cities around the country,
if sufficient funding can be raised.
The Filles Libres programme fully conforms to the International
Federation’s HIV policy, which emphasizes the role of
community involvement through a network of volunteers from the
communities themselves, and assistance for the most vulnerable
people.
“We can only have a lasting influence on reducing HIV
figures if we are able to reach the people most at risk, such
as the ‘filles libres’ in Cameroon,” concludes
Javier Medrano, head of the International Federation’s
regional office for Central Africa.
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Marthe
is 25 years old. This elegant young woman with a charming
smile is a ‘fille libre’, as women who engage
in sex work are called in Cameroon. She is a regular visitor
at the Henry Dunant health centre in the city centre of
the capital Yaoundé. (p16729)
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Marthe
meets with the head of the Henry Dunant health centre,
Dr Emmanuel Mbog. (p16730)
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| The
Douala Red Cross theatre group often performs in local
nightclubs spreading the message of prevention. (p16731)
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