Report shows Uganda Girl Child commercial sexual exploitation on the increase.
Gloria Katusiime. May 15, 2003

In a report that was recently released by Women and Youth Services, females are accounting for 97% of children most hit by commercial sexual exploitation along truck driver stop over towns.

Truck drivers stop over towns of Idudi, Naluwerere, Lukaya and Ntungamo town council were studied to estimate the nature and magnitude of commercial sexual exploitation in Uganda, identify the categories of children most affected, examine the social economic dynamics leading children into sex business, identify the perpetrators and explore scope of interventions.

Findings showed that the majority of children involved in commercial sex are between 8-18 years old and in the sample size study of 143 respondents along the 5 truck stop over towns, 97% of children most hit were female and boys accounting for 3%.

Most of these girls are school dropouts who dropped out due to lack of school fees or the loss of parents for others.

I met Sarah who told me she was forced into prostitution as a result of mistreatment from her stepmother after her mother died when she was in primary three. 'I was mistreated my stepmother and so I run away from home' she says.

Mutesi is 14 years and her story like so many is that she was forced into commercial sex work when her parents died.

Most say they would like out of this business but have no means of support should they leave and especially for those that come from large families the parents see this as a source of income.

Most of the commercial sex as indicated by the report is concentrated in and around lodges with a few meeting in the bush, inside or under the truck.

"I was forced under the truck many times one of the girls narrates with tears in her eyes, most these men were rough Somali men who refused to sleep in lodges because they regarded them expensive", she adds.

"And at the end of it all I would be given as little as 2000 shillings [1$]"

For the majority payment is dependent on the length of activity varying as low as 1000 shillings less than a dollar to about 10,000 shillings [6$] and these charges are not fixed. Majority of the clientele are Kenyans, Ugandans, Somalis, Rwandese, Tanzanians, Congolese and those from Burundi.

A number of reasons have been cited by the report as to why these young girls get involved in commercial sex. Some of the major reasons included the desire to earn a living, peer influence, family breakdown, domestic violence and death of parents.

40% of the child commercial workers had ever been infected with diseases associated with child prostitution and nearly half of the respondents have ever been infected and vulnerable to getting HIV/AIDS and spreading it to their partners.

For more detail on the report, email ways@afsat.com.

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Last update: May-15, 2003