Rédaction Africa Links 24 with lexpress
Published on 2024-03-09 02:45:00
In Toliara, the minors prostitute themselves due to the insufficient means of livelihood of their parents. Young prostitutes wish to return to school.
Difficult life. NRD is 16 years old. She started prostituting at the age of 14 by frequenting nightclubs in Toliara. “My mother sells cassava. She markets with wholesalers and sells in rural communities such as Betsinjaka or Mitsinjo Betanimena. When I was in 5th grade, she could no longer afford my school fees at the CEG of Betsinjaka, nor school supplies, nor my food, so I was expelled. My brother and I were not eating enough. Our father left us a long time ago,” NRD says. So she opted for the easy solution to make money.
“My friends took me to the city to see what it was like. Then I became interested when I saw that I could earn at least 20,000 ariary per night by prostituting,” adds the young NRD. During the day, she helps her mother with some daily tasks like fetching water or assisting her in selling cassava. Three nights a week, she says she finds excuses to go out so she can go “work.” “I often say that I am going to spend the night at our aunt’s house who lives in the Andakoro neighborhood. Or I say that I am going to participate in a wake or a party. But I always have to find a way to get out,” the teenager reveals.
Returning
When asked what she does with her money, NRD says she saves a few thousand ariary. “I don’t show them to my mother because she would surely ask where the money comes from. And I can’t go back to school either because she would always ask about the source of the money,” she confides. The young girl is concerned about the delicacy of her situation as she would like to return to school.
“I was a good student with an average of 14/20. But unfortunately, I could no longer continue. Some of my prostitute acquaintances have the opportunity to go back to school. It breaks my heart because I really want to continue my studies,” she says almost in tears. “If I can make a request to the authorities or to those to whom this request is addressed, it is the free schooling for vulnerable girls and young girls like me, from poor families,” she emphasizes.
This is also what three of her friends, all minors, who prostitute themselves to survive, would like. “We hide when we eat good food with what we earn. We hide our work clothes. But we can’t continue to live always in those conditions. And I am convinced that we need to go to school to have a good life later,” one of them advances. Two weeks ago, the police came to the nightclubs to chase away the minors, prostitutes or not. The three young girls say they have never had dealings with the police even though they often come home around 1 a.m.
MiotiSoa Mare
Read the original article(French) on lexpress.mg
