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Teenage prostitution on the rise in Liberia - 1/22/2006 12:54:01 AM
Sidiki Trawally
As The government must wield great effort to combat rising teenage prostitution involving young girls to ensure that adult men don’t go on to exploit them for sex and money, because these young women are supposed to return to school to prepare themselves for future leadership role in their country. An investigation launched by the FrontPageAfrica revealed that teenage prostitution has been going on unchecked by local government officials. Our investigation also revealed that some of the adult males who are luring these young girls into the ugly act are officials of government, local and foreign businessmen. In fact sources hinted that there is a whole generation of prostitutes growing up in the city and other parts of the country. FrontPageAfrica also learned that some parents, including mothers are often "recruiting" their daughters, some of who are no older than 13 into the profession. Some parents sanction their daughters’ involvement in prostitution, because whatever that is brought home is shared among them as a means to survive.
Carepath, Inc launched to get girls off the street Lamenting the ugly situation was Liberian philanthropist, Gurley Gibson-Brown, who said young Liberian girls are being exploited by men who have money. According to her, these men, including officials of government and businessmen lure the teen girls into the sex for money scheme. As a result, most of these young girls see going to school as a waste of time. Gibson said she will help to get the girls off the streets and make sure they return to the classrooms to learn. In order to achieve her objective, Gibson recently launched a non-governmental organization in Liberia known as Carepath, Inc to begin the exercise. She said Carepath, Inc will make the girls useful and productive citizens in the society. “It is sad to see our young girls roaming the streets sleeping from one man to the other just to get money. This is horrible, but we blame this kind of condition on the war,” she told FrontPageAfrica.. Ms. Gibson disclosed that Carepath’s first project will target disadvantage girls in the Monrovia area, who encounter tremendous social problems. She told FrontPageAfrica moments before she took off for Monrovia that teen pregnancy is on the rise with a major health concern brewing in the community because “these young girls cannot care for themselves. These girls resort to prostitution to support themselves because most of them lost their parents during the war.” During the investigation, FrontPageAfrica learned that normally a young girl around the age of 13 or 14 would dress up and stand at a street corner looking vacantly into the street. After a few minutes an adult male would approach her and offers to take her out to an expensive dinner; in addition, he offers her a satisfying amount of money. With a shy, quivering glance and a sweet smile the girl graciously takes the man’s arm and jumps into his car. FrontPageAfrica also learned that teenage prostitution is also being carried out in other areas around the country where a common and casual rendezvous is used for the meeting between the young girls and their adult male clients. Liberia is facing a major problem with a wide-spreading and popular after-school activity of its young female students, said an analyst. One observer said some promoters of "sex for money," have had a significant impact on the numbers of teenage girls engaging in prostitution and in most cases aiding them with finding customers and aggressively luring new young girls into the act. Prostitution has a benefit to young women, another observer noted. He said with just the sacrifice of their bodies and without much excessive labor, these young girls can make a great amount of money to take home to their parents, who are eagerly awaiting their daughters. “The money is a significant appeal in the act,” said the observer, who wants to remain anonymous for the sake of this story. Gibson laments that instead of feeling ashamed for trading their bodies for currency and dinner at expensive restaurants, many of these young girls are proud that they are able to make so much money on their own rather than pocket money from their parents.” It is a sad tale for our precious jewels.” Carepath Inc, according to her, will facilitate community development through social service and health projects, as well as improving the educational standard of our youths. The Director also disclosed that the NGO will endeavor to provide occupational training, HIV/AID awareness, community empowerment in the area of sanitation, construction skills and on-the-job experience as well as providing basic educational services and leadership development counseling to youths in the city, thus allowing them to become productive citizens. She told FrontPageAfrica that her organization will provide services in the area of mental health by providing group and individual therapy to the young girls. Carepath, Inc is a nonprofit organization with the mission to serve the youths, mostly girls, who are in need of specialized supports to improve their living conditions and achieve recovery, wellness and self-determination. According to Gibson, Carepath will provide a variety of services to the youths who have been affected by the 14-year war in Liberia. She added, “Our services integrate the principles of rehabilitation with the individual needs of the youth we serve. The increase in teen prostitution is largely due to the generation gap that exits and is widening between the young and older generation of Liberia. The children are left alone by their parents to care for themselves, yielding them with the growing freedom to live as they see fit. The growing independence and self-reliance developed causes the young people to become more distanced from their parents and other adults. They possess different societal and materialistic views from their parents and elders, developing an entire unique culture of values and beliefs from the traditions of thoughts taught to them The moneymaking and entertainment, however, is only one side to the increase in teenage prostitution in Liberia. A number of girls who are engaged in prostitution are driven to it by unhappiness and despair, which are produced by the same distancing between the young and old generations and augmented by family and societal problems. Many teen prostitutes admit to having frequent disagreements with their parents and siblings so they try to stay away from home a much as possible. In effect, these individuals become reluctantly disconnected from the family, the society, and its values. A lot of them were good students before joining the indecent act. Some of them apparently took part in the ugly act voluntarily through friends, but most of them were motivated by absolute poverty and curiosity. The girls are impressed by the wealth and power of their male clients, mainly local businessmen and officials, who took them to luxurious hotels and gave them relatively large sums of money - paying even more if the girls were virgins, an analyst told the FrontPageAfrica. In a nation where teenage sex is considered shocking, the case has rung alarm bells with one sociologist saying that the taboos about sexual matters mean children actually receive little education about either sex or morality. The case has also provoked rare criticism of the men involved, in a society where many men see exploiting the teens as normal behavior. Teens aren't the only ones trapped in the cycle of prostitution. Older women, some in their 50’s are also in demand. They are popular with young boys and according to a source, these women are engaging in sex with teen boys just to “service their hearts and not just for sex.” Gibson believes that passing a tougher law that will crack down on prostitution and punish men that are involved in child exploitation will serve Liberia a great deal in restoring sanity to the womanhood in the country. She added: “If there is an existing law against prostitution, I think our government should reinforce it. This will help to stop the ugliness this situation has already caused our country.” |
Gurley Gibson-Brown, Founder and Director Carepath, Inc
