Kenia: Hidden Sex Work, HIV Risk in Dadaab
PlusNews (Johannesburg), September 16, 2011
At Ifo trading centre, a short distance from northeastern Kenya's Dadaab refugee complex, Hawa*, a teenage girl, sits in a dark room on an old jerry can holding a small bunch of fresh khat, a mild stimulant, ostensibly for sale.
But Hawa is not selling khat; she is selling sex. The kiosk is a convenient way for her to meet clients.
[...]
A 2010 HIV Behavioural Surveillance Survey [ http://www.unhcr.org/4d231ca09.pdf ] conducted by the UN Refugee Agency and the Intergovernmental Authority on Development in Dadaab found that 7 percent of male respondents and 3 percent of female respondents reported symptoms of a sexually transmitted infection - which increases susceptibility to acquiring and transmitting HIV - in the past year.
The BSS found that 3 percent of sexually active respondents reported transactional sex for money, gifts or favours. Just 12 percent of sexually active survey participants reported ever using a condom, dropping to 5 percent for the female condom, and only 22 percent of respondents had comprehensive
knowledge about HIV.
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