By Bampia James Bundu
Last month, over a hundred youths in Kanekay, a community in the east of Freetown, took a vow to rise up against prostitution and drug abuse - two phenomena that threaten a whole generation of Sierra Leone`s youths.
Kanekay, amongst other communities nearby, is notorious for violence, which has been linked to a culture of drug abuse among the youth folks. It is an industrial community and notably hosts part of the Freetown Port, officially called Queen Elizabeth II Quay, as well as cement manufacturer Leocem, and a host of other factories. The prospect for employment opportunities therefore serves as a pull factor to many young boys and girls from nearby communities. The resulting competition and ensuing frustration that await these desperate job seekers push many of them into dangerous behaviors.
Osman Kargbo is one such job seeker who comes from next door Savage Square. He tells Politico that they engage in menial jobs so that they can keep themselves going.
“We don’t have fix jobs. We work on anything we see. Hence we are paid at the end [of the work],” he says.
Osman and his colleagues mostly work on containers, from which they offload goods into stores after they are cleared at the Key. The pay varies, because they have to negotiate. But Osman says he gets between Le1, 500 and Le2, 000 when he works on a 20 feet container, and Le25, 000 or Le30, 000 when it is a 40 feet container.
Stress & drugs
The stressful nature of the job, plus “hard” life in the streets, Osman says, also means they get to seek for ways to “relax’ themselves. They do so by smoking cigarette and even marijuana (Jamba).
Among the other substances the community people say are abused by the youths are drugs like Diazepam, ‘Brown Brown’, and ‘Ash’.
The youths, according to Osman`s account, also face a series of challenges, ranging from police harassment and street fighting. He says all these require one to ensure they survive the heat.
“Survival is our main objective living in the streets,” he says. “I have a wife and kids. I have to strive to feed them at all cost.”
17-year old Mariatu, not her real name, engages in prostitution and hangs out at a night club called ‘Marlboro Dubai’. This is situated at Cline Town, few meters from Kanekay.
Mariatu laments that ‘business’ has been interrupted by the Ebola crisis and says as a result many of her colleagues have been forced to quit. She says in response to the epidemic and the risk involved, they have re-strategized.
“[Now] we only do business with people we know and we endeavour to check their physical fitness and their temperature. It’s risky but we have to survive,” she says.
Mariatu was influenced into prostitution by her friend, she says. And she later found out that ‘business’ isn’t that bad because she loves sex and it’s fun for her.
“I used to do it for nothing with my male friends until I was introduced to the commercial part of it. I am not into this for the money but for pleasure. So I choose the type of men I make love with in order to enjoy and get enough satisfaction.”
Mariatu says she has sex for free with men who are her taste.
But for 21-year old Musu, also not her real name, who describes herself as a “hustler”, the trade used to be the sole source of her livelihoods before Ebola.
Musu was brought to Freetown by her aunt when she was 9 years old and lived with the aunt until three years ago when she decided to fend for herself. She doesn’t disclose the reasons as to why she left her aunt`s house.
She says she has had two kids with two different men who barely know their children. Musu takes care of the kids single-handedly, she says.
“Life is hard in the streets and prostitution is not a child’s game. It’s hard to explain,” she says.
Musu recalls that she and many of her colleagues who were engaged in prostitution during her days took drugs to enable them do their jobs effectively. “We have to be strong. Some men are very hard to deal with and they weaken you fast if you are not prepared. We smoke and drink and at times take other drugs to keep us healthy,” she narrates.
Musu however confesses that prostitution is not a good life for women to live as its changes people`s identities. Explaining, she discloses that this identity change has to do with not just name change, but also acts like smoking cigarette and drink of alcohol. She says they do so that potential clients can easily identify them. Musu advises her fellow women to avoid prostitution.
Her life epitomizes the good side of the Ebola epidemic.
“I am not happy for the presence of Ebola in Sierra Leone. But the truth is, for the past eight months my life has changed because I stopped prostitution and now I have learnt how to do business and other things,” she boasts, with a wide smile on her face.
Blame
Community leaders acknowledged the problems Kanekay is faced with and say they are determined to do something about it.
Youth activist, Ibrahim Kalokoh, says the ‘violence’ tag on the community is clearly rooted in the composition of its inhabitants. He says they are concerned that their own kids take the blame for what outsiders do.
“Our community is big and it’s an industrial area. Youth come from different communities in search of jobs and end up hanging around and causing problem. And people blame it on our children,” he told the Sierra Leone Road Safety Authority (SLRSA) held in March.
Kalokoh later assures Politico that they will do their best as leaders to educate their colleagues to refrain from drugs, prostitution, with particularly focus on regulations set aside by the ministry of Health and Sanitation (MoHS) for the prevention of Ebola transmission.
The SLRSA outreach was part of an ongoing awareness raising campaign, being held on the theme: Rise in drug abuse, prostitution and the fight against Ebola in communities.
SLRSA`s role is primarily to ensure road safety. The head of the delegation, Deputy Executive Director Alice Pratt, said they were engaging communities in order to educate them on the roles and responsibilities of SLRSA. This, she said, was also in line with the government`s Agenda for Prosperity and the Authority`s Performance Tracking Table (PTT). Pratt said drugs and alcohol were linked to road accidents. She said the youths could serve as role models in the community and as ambassadors in preaching against these vices.
“We are engaging communities in order to educate youth on the harm of taking drugs and discouraging young girls from engaging in prostitutions,” she said.
For the Kanekay community leaders, the forum provided an opportunity to start somewhere in the crusade to ensuring that drugs and prostitution become a thin of the past in the community.
“It will not end overnight, but we will do our best to stop it as soon as we can,” he says.
Many other youths in the Kanekay community engage in Bike riding, pushing cart (Omolankay) or serving as laborers. These, community leaders say, are recent developments resulting from sensitizations activities which have led some of the youths to realize that drugs and life as gangster doesn’t pay.
For Ayo Bangura, Councilor of Ward 367 of Constituency 103, where Kanekay falls, the community is in dire need of support and something needed to be done to change the minds and thinking of the youths.
© Politico 16/04/15
