Casestudy: Theresa Mwansa

There is a lot of support for each other in our group

Theresa is thirty five years old and started working as a sex worker when she was sixteen, at that time she was in Grade 9 at Kasama Secondary School.

I started prostitution when my father died. My relatives took me in but did not care for me. They would buy books and things for their children, but never for me. So I started going out clubbing with my friends after school. We would bring clothes in our bags and change after school. Life became very difficult. I stopped going home because no one loved me there. Sometimes I would go to a friend's house, or else I would just find a man and go and sleep and have sex with them. I didn't care how old he was or whatever. I would just have sex with him.

We were three in our family. One died and my sister got married. She had a difficult marriage, so I could not go to live with her. I dropped out of school and became a sex worker full time. I would go to bars and clubs and have sex with men. I did not care if they were old, young, neighbour, whatever, 5 or 6 men in a night usually, so long as I got the money I wanted. I would raise maybe K600,000 or K700,000 and I would show off to my friends. A lot of friends joined me, because they were attracted to the money. There were 12 of us in a group working together but there are now only 2 of us left from that group of 12. 10 have died. We never cared where we went. We did not look out for each other. The only thing we did was to make sure we all had condoms.

Theresa says she used to keep female condoms. If the man refused to wear a condom, she would pretend to go to the toilet and put in a female condom.

It was uncomfortable to use them, but I put up with it, to protect myself, to save my life.

Theresa is now a member of a support group for former sex workers.

There is a lot of support for each other in our group. We care for one another because we understand. We all come from the same background, so we understand what we have all been through. I am so happy here. I have learned a lot. I can take care of myself. I have learned how to garden, to sew, tailoring and I have been for anti-drug training. There were a lot of challenges. A lot of the men were violent. There was a group of men who would take you to the graveyard, have sex with you and beat you, then just leave you there. Some would take you, give you money, beat you, take back their money and run.

I go for VCT every three months. The first time I did the test, it came out negative, but I did not believe it so I went to another clinic. Again, I was negative but I did not believe it again because of what I had done in the past. I went again to another clinic and was tested negative.

Everyone is at risk to HIV, especially those who are married. They are more at risk than any person. As for us who are not married, who just have sex with men, it is easier for us to tell a man to use a condom. In our culture, women have to submit to their husband. They cannot ask their husband to use a condom. If you are his girlfriend, you can say more, and you can tell him no!

If I met a young girl getting into prostitution, I would try to advise her not to because of the diseases. You need to respect yourself. I used to be violent and got no respect from people. Now I have respect from my neighbours in my compound. A lot of things have changed in me. I no longer sleep with lots of men. I used to smoke dagga and drink, I no longer do this. I used to fight, I no longer fight. I never had respect. I never cared for myself. I used to wake up and just go to the pub. Now I wake up and I clean my home and care for myself.