Jean-Luc Martinage, International Federation
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.