Helping Write The Story of Sex Workers in Uganda · Global Voices
▻https://globalvoices.org/2017/05/22/helping-write-the-story-of-sex-workers-in-uganda
If you asked me why I set out to write a sex worker diary on my blog, I would tell you I did it out of sheer curiosity. I had heard stories that in Bwaise, a slum in Northern Kampala, women were selling themselves for as little as 500 Uganda shillings (US$0.14). I wanted to hear the story for myself, and maybe share it with readers of my blog. So I called up my friend Joseph, a community worker who has worked in this area for years.
The Bwaise slum is located five minutes from Kampala’s Central Business District. Joseph was waiting for me when I disembarked from a commuter taxi one afternoon. After exchanging pleasantries, he led me through a narrow corridor. At the end of the corridor, the scene suddenly changed: this was not the Kampala I am used to. I saw mud-walled drinking joints full of men and women at noon. There was rubbish everywhere and Lingala music playing in the background. To navigate, Joseph and I had to jump over streams of sewage. We meandered our way through alleyways lined with wooden and iron sheeting-walled shacks. I later discovered these were brothels, and that over 300 women come to this area daily to sell sex, by both day and night.