In FHOK, Commercial Sex Workers (CSWs) finds a friend

If you are not a client or a person who provide health services to them, then you might not know what their life is like. This are the commercial sex workers, who have been stigmatized and abused by the society, making it very difficult for them to come out and seek sexual and reproductive health (SRH) information and other services.

About the Project

About three years, the FHOK decided to intervene and help commercial sex workers in the lakeside of Kisumu, Nyanza province, where HIV prevalence is 14.9%. This project has been replicated in Nakuru and Eldoret towns. In its intervention, FHOK started by establishing the Pambazuko (Kiswahili word meaning new dawn) project with the aim of promoting safer sex among sex workers and their clients. FHOK in collaboration with other partners, Institute of Tropical Medicine of Belgium, Kenya’s Ministry of Health, Kenya Medical Research Institute and Centre for Disease Control help sex workers access HIV/AIDS and other reproductive health information and services.

Successes and results of the approaches

The project is recording impressive results, working with peer educators has worked well with clients saying they feel at ease and at home when they communicate with people who understand them. Such an approach has also helped to take SRH services to CSW who are reluctant or far away from the FHOK’s clinics.

Challenges

Some clients insist on unprotected sex, promising to pay higher fees. Law enforcement agencies have made the work of peer educators difficult, by arresting them while providing SRH services to other CSWs. These law enforcers sometimes insist on having sex with them in exchange of freedom.

Lessons Learnt

For a programme targeting CSWs to succeed, the implementers have to be patient, show respect, speak the sex workers language and be highly accommodative and restraint because sex workers can say anything no matter how obnoxious it is. Service providers have to win the confidence of and build strong trust with CSWs since many of them operate in secrecy due to the illegality and societal stigma tagged on the practice.