I had a very depressing experience last night as I followed a team to a red zone.
They are working on a project for rehabilitation of prostitutes and even though it isn’t fully in my interest area I volunteered for the experience.
So we headed to the famed Allen avenue, this happens to be a place I go to often during business hours but this was another business hours starting.
Pastor Nike Adeyemi mentioned during the ELC social sector session that it is a multi billion Naira industry and I didn’t have any doubt going by what I saw last night.
Many years back I have seen prostitutes on this particular street but they were older, what I saw last night were very young girls. The oldest would be like 22-25.
I have never approached a prostitute so didn’t even know how to go about our purpose so I had to watch the guys do it. I have been told they have to approach them like they were customers and isolate them.
Their(the prostitutes) greatest fear and security are the pimps. They are being monitored closely, many of these girls are heavily indebted to them. Some of these girls are also users of drugs, so they have to ‘work’ to ensure the flow of the drugs.
Two of them were isolated with different guys drawing them into our net. Where I am seated in the vehicle is one of the counsellors, Vivian, a lady with grace on her life. Calm and collected I listened as she spoke to Tina(of course not her real name).
Tina was very rude and almost becoming violent but Vivian was so calm even though her discussion with Tina wasn’t going anywhere. At last Tina opened the door of the vehicle and left but Vivian had slipped a note into her bag with her card.
Vivian said after she left “That went well, she will call me”.
“Went well?” I asked.
Vivian told me she has been slapped many times and she understands how they feel because she was once a prostitute. My jaw dropped and I looked at her no sign.
She said “That is why I believe that they can change”. She gave me a brief lecture on her work and the successes they’ve had. How close she had been to giving up when she started the work of rehabilitation but her own story of change motivated her.
Today I believe anew that lives can be changed, that no matter how battered and scattered the life of the person it can change for the better.
To be continued…
Have a great day!
