Prostitutes seek funds to start alternative businesses

Forty prostitutes, who on Saturday completed three days of training in small business management, are seeking funds to launch alternative revenue-generating activities, Claudia Yetina, the chairwoman of the prostitutes’ association in the Central African Republic, told IRIN. Yetina, a 30-year-old divorced mother of five who chairs the Association des filles libres de Centrafrique contre le Sida, said the prostitutes had learnt a lot from the training and were keen on engaging in business. "Each prostitute was put together with an experienced trader for three days," Paul Mbelenga, the chairman of the Reseau Centrafricain des Wali (female) and Koli (male) Gala (market) contre le Sida, an association of market traders against HIV/AIDS, told IRIN on Monday. He said the first day of training comprised observation followed by two days of practice by the trainers, who worked together with grocery, meat, fish, fruit and clothes traders. "The lady who trained me showed me she organises her expenses and generates her incomes, and it was very attractive," Yetina said. She added that with 500,000 francs CFA (US $900), she would be able to start a new life selling clothes in a shop. The project targeting prostitutes is supported by the UN Development Programme (UNDP), which in August 2001 signed a $1.14-million six-year agreement with the government to fight HIV/AIDS through education and campaigns. An official of the UNDP anti-HIV/AIDS programme, Bertin Gustave Niakamatchi, told IRIN on Monday that the programme sponsored revenue-generating activities for 141 prostitutes in March 2002 in the capital, Bangui, 100 in Bouar, 454 km northwest of Bangui, and 100 in Berberati, 186 km west of Bangui. "The operation was a success as many prostitutes converted themselves into traders," Niakamatchi said. He said that instead of starting businesses, some prostitutes had wasted their money. Yetina said that as a result of the programme, many former prostitutes were prospering, and "some even got married". She said each had received about 50,000 francs CFA to start revenue-generating activities. Mbelenga said that with 50,000 francs invested in the grocery business, one could make up to 5,000 francs profit daily, while with 300,000 francs invested in clothes business could earn a trader a monthly profit of to 50,000 francs. "We want to change our strategy by giving funds to experienced traders who would then employ and pay prostitutes," Niakamatchi said. Created in June 2002, the Association des filles libres de Centrafrique contre le Sida has about 400 members in Bangui. Yetina said the association had been educating other prostitutes in bars, nightclubs and other places about AIDS prevention. A study by the Pasteur Institute in December 2002 showed that 14.8 percent of the CAR’s 3.5 million people were HIV-positive, making the nation the most affected in the subregion.