Micro-financing with Prostitutes

The more I (Faith) am getting out into the community, the more I am seeing the needs that surround us here in Ethiopia. There are so many different needs, so many ways to help, that I find myself overwhelmed at times. I guess it is no different than anywhere else in the world. The needs are so great if we would just stop, open our eyes, and look for a few seconds.

For the first time since I have moved here, I think I finally did that in my little village. I let go of all the hustle and bustle of the clinic, which can (and usually does) take all of our efforts and time, and just opened my eyes. And, I have to admit, it was frightening but also inspiring. As I saw some of the other needs that stood in my face, a flood of ideas came crashing into my head.

My first “idea” is to start a micro-financing group among some of the prostitutes in our village. Let me explain where this is coming from… I have been visiting with a very small, sweet woman named Waynitu, a single mother of 3, and pregnant with the 4th. Because she has no husband and no education, there is very little work for her to do other than doing small chores in other people’s homes for very meager wages. She makes 25 birr a month (which is a little less than $2 US), of which 20 birr is used to pay the house rent. That leaves her 5 birr (less than 50 cents) for any of the other needs for her family. Now, of course this is impossible to live on, so she earns a living through prostitution as well. When I asked her about this, she said that sometimes men come to her and offer her 5 or 10 birr if she will sleep with them. And she accepts, desperate for a way to take care of her children.

She is not the first one that I have encountered that is in this situation. There are many more.

Now I am fully aware that starting a micro-financing group would not solve the problem for these women. It goes much deeper than needing money. It is more the problem of these women lacking any self-worth, any dignity, any hope. I want to be a part of seeing that change for them.

So, my idea is to begin a micro-financing group. The women would take turns taking out loans from a communal amount of money. Eventually, the amount grows and the women have access to more significant amounts of money. The idea would be not to meet to just loan money out to one another, but also become a support group, in a sense. We would begin discussing self-worth, value, alternative solutions to prostitution, and family planning methods.

However, ideas are only just that unless you have the knowledge of what to do with them. So this is maybe where you come in. I do not claim to understand the core issues for these women. I know that the issue of self-worth is a universal struggle for women in all cultures. But these women are struggling on so many different levels. So, if any of you reading this have any experience or advice in the area, please email me. I need all the help I can get, and these women need all the help they can get, too.