Sick economy fuelling sex trade in Malawi

Sex trade is on the increase in Malawi as a result of the hardships people were facing because of grinding poverty, it has been established.

Sex workers
Sex workers

The economy has crumbled and, with it, opportunity. More than half of 16 million people in the country live on less than $1 a day. Inflation and food shortages are making many women and children destitute.

So, girls as young as 15 and middle-aged married women were turning up to prostitution.

Population Concern International (PCI) reproductive, maternal, child and newborn health coordinator, Wakisa Kachali, said it was sad to see young girls engaging in prostitution because of poverty and hunger.

Speaking in Balaka on the sidelines of a meeting to solicit funds to send young prostitutes back to their respective homes and economically empower the older ones, Godffrey Chinkhota, programmes coordinator for  Positive Steps, a local non-governmental organisation (NGO), has said  his group is engaging sex workers in village savings and loan (VSL) groups.

“We are trying to reduce the numbers of sex workers from 710 in Balaka District through intensified training and counselling to send them back home to engage in businesses and school so that we stop the spread of HIV,” he said.

Chinkhota also said they facilitated the formation of Tithandizane Association to advocate the rights of sex workers and help them form VSLs to economically empower them.

Balaka District Council chairperson Daud Amini said prostitution was tricky in that while some are running away from their respective homes due to poverty and hunger, others are doing it out of thoughtlessness.

The  economic situation in Malawi is making everything worse.

Lucy,  seen patronising nightclubs peddling her flesh for survival, said : “ I am desperate. I need to survive. I don’t mind being MG 2 (Second wife).”

 

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Joseph
Joseph
7 years ago

PROSTITUTION IN MALAWI HAS BEEN THERE EVEN DURING THE TIME OF ONE PARTY RULE. THEN IT WAS FREE SEX AND WAS COMMON WHEN PEOPLE CONVERGED FOR NATIONAL REGION, DISTRICT AND AREA EVENTS. CHURCH EVENTS WERE NEVER SPARED FROM THIS OLD PROFESSION. THEN IT WAS SOMETHING ONE COULD NOT BOLDLY PUT IN THE PRESS AS IT IS NOW. DR. HK. BANDA EVEN GAVE ORDERS NOT TO REVEAL TO THE WORLD THAT MALAWI WAS GRAPPLING WITH THE HIV INFECTION BECAUSE IT WOULD HURT THE TOURISM INDUSTRY. THIS COULD BE SAID THE SAME OF THE HUNGER SITUATION BUT WHAT DIFFERS BETWEEN THE REGIMES… Read more »

Nkata
Nkata
7 years ago

The burnt buttakoz pls remove it nyasa guruz…….Tikanika kudya mahulewa wikend ino

James phiri
7 years ago

Easy money. Amalawi ndye ulesi. Just chinda nd drink and piss. Fail to go work and keep blaming the amwenye for our downfall.

Mwana Liwewe
Mwana Liwewe
7 years ago

Chigololo ndi chokoma wether economy is good or bad. In fact ukakhala mmaluzi chimakoma bad.

Winston Msowoya
Winston Msowoya
7 years ago

be humane,there is something wrong with you I guess.The fact is that prostitution,in Malawi is enhanced by lack of economic opportunities especially in Africa where our cultures are based strongly on religious beliefs.Yes,in Europe prostitution is centuries old it is part of their life,think of the Brothels in London’s and Paris’s streets for instance.Think of our women lining up in Blantyre and Lilongwe streets at night,they are not happy only that their lives have hit stonewalls and have no other alternatives,but to sell their lovely bodies reluctantly for survival.No African woman would put her body on line if she has… Read more »

Kholowa mkabudula
Kholowa mkabudula
7 years ago

Namwe imwe azimai achuluka amuna ndiochepa fufuzani kwina kulikonse nde mmati atani? Nde bwenzi anthu akukwelana mmaofesimu? Mavuto slipo eya komanso uhule ndi mtima wa munthu

Jijo
Jijo
7 years ago

Zoona

Chembwiye
Chembwiye
7 years ago

Shame. The reporter has too little knowledge of social and economic factors that are linked to sex work. Studies are inconsistent on whether poverty is a driver of sex work; sex work e.g. in SA is probably 5 times more than in Malawi; informally institutionalised into recognised prostitution in the big cities. I it is not true at all to attribute economic melt down as a predictor of sex work….nyasatimes do proper desktop research before you utter such nonsense.

be humane
be humane
7 years ago

SEx business started some way back and not because of economic hardships

chief activist
7 years ago

S.A,UK, name them ah countries well t do in their economy yet they posses the highest rate of sex trading mapc…..would we say its because of thier economy.?whether mW gets betta in its economy sex trade would b owes on the rise…..bcause ivin if De economy is doing gd….not every one wuls b doing gd…..koz we have diff levels of income

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