Zufan Alebachew, 22, a sex worker in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, grew up in the Amhara region in the north. She told IRIN/PlusNews how a forced, early marriage affected the course of her life.
"I am the first-born of my parents; my father used to beat my mother. Until she got sick and died, she ensured that I went to school. Back then I had hopes and dreams, but after her death my father forced me to marry someone I didn't even know and I had to drop out of school.
"I began a new, unhappy life of higher responsibility and domestic violence. The household chores and field work were so tough to cope with that after two years I fled to Addis Ababa, where I got a job as a maidservant for the next four years. I also rejoined night school and finished secondary school, hoping that I could get a better-paid job.
"One day my employer's son - a drug addict - came home from where he used to work in the countryside. One night he left the house late at night and came back high. I was asleep. He woke me up. He was then very violent; he stepped on my throat and threatened that he would kill me if I screamed. He raped me.
"As a result, I got pregnant. I wanted to die; I thought my presence in this world was only a pain to me. I was kicked out of the house when my employers found out that I was pregnant. I have failed to find other employment, so out of desperation I have became a sex worker.
"On the advice of the doctors who followed my pregnancy, I had an HIV test. It was positive. After the counselling, I realised that I was the only one left for my child.
He is now two years old and did not contract the virus from me. I am now on antiretroviral drugs - I know I have to take care of myself in order to be a good mother."
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This article was produced by IRIN News while it was part of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Please send queries on copyright or liability to the UN. For more information: https://shop.un.org/rights-permissions