Prostitution in Africa

Africa being a continent with a very high poverty rate. Many females cannot get jobs because of sexism. Even though throughout in Africa mostly prostitution is illegal, many females prostitute themselves to get money. There are many young girls without parents that are brought in by pimps and are raised to be a prostitutes.

(Source: http://www.irinnews.org/report/49619/togo-child-prostitution-goes-unchecked-in-togo)

Adjo in 2004 was 11, she is an example of one of these girls that didn’t have parents and was brought into a home by a pimp, who she and many girls her call “Mama”, get abused and exploited to survive in this world. Adjo said that she likes to work with foreigners because they pay more and are more respectful to her rather than from her birthplace of  Togo. Foreigners will pay from $10 - $20 USD, while people from Togo will pay $2 or $3 USD. The soldiers that are posted to protect people in Togo, often exploit these girls to get free sex by using their power, and the girls have to accept because they are scared of them. The woman that Adjo called Mama is a woman that asks for every cent of her money, if you don’t give her money, she will beat the girls until they give up the money. Most of the girls are illiterate and can’t afford to go to school. Adjo said sometimes it’s worth spending some of her money and taking a beating so she can buy a new clothes, as she says, “With 500 CFA (US$1) I can get two sexy outfits!” while laughing.

Due to places like Togo not having laws to protect these girls from exploitation, non-government organizations are helping rescue these girls from harm, and to educate people in these areas about child abuse, due to it being a major taboo subject.

Sources

"TOGO: Child Prostitution Goes Unchecked in Togo." IRIN News., 23 Apr. 2004. Web. 7 Nov. 2014. <http://www.irinnews.org/report/49619/togo-child-prostitution-goes-unchecked-in-togo>.

Wikipedia contributors. "Prostitution in Africa." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 10 Sep. 2014. Web. 12 Nov. 2014. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prostitution_in_Africa>.

Birth Control in Africa

Africa has the over all lowest use of birth control among of women using birth control in the world.

Map showing the world birth control use (source http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Birth_control_in_Africa)

One in twenty-six women die due to maternal causes in Africa, unlike Europe which only one in 9400 women. This is due to the lack of safe medical abortions in Africa. Many people scam female into thinking that they will give them safe abortions, when they are not safe and they have a large chance of killing the female, just to get money from them.

Females in Africa who are at a young age and in school that get pregnant while in school will never complete school. Schooling in Africa is already difficult for females, due to mistreatment because of sexism, pregnancy is another thing on top of that so they will almost always drop out of school. This is due to the inaccessibility to birth control, and the lack of education of birth control and abortion.

Pregnancy is not the only thing that birth control protects against, there is also STIs. About 4.9% of people in Africa had HIV/AIDS in 2011. To give that percentage some context that is 23 500 000 people in Africa diagnosed with HIV/AIDS. This is because of the lack of access to condoms, and if there is access to condoms they are usually expensive. For example in some countries, one is Zimbabwe, one condom is worth three days of the average salary.

There are many place to make donations and organizations are doing aid work to give females proper birth control and safe abortions to access. Also to support family planning within marriages, to supply medical equipment and professions to help with the planning.

Sources

"Birth Control in Africa." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 24 Oct. 2014. Web. 30 Oct. 2014. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Birth_control_in_Africa>.

Creanga, Andreea A., Duff Gillespie, Sabrina Karklins, and Amy O. Tsui. "Low Use of Contraception among Poor Women in Africa: An Equity Issue."WHO. WHO, 01 Feb. 2011. Web. 30 Oct. 2014. <http://www.who.int/bulletin/volumes/89/4/10-083329/en/>.

"Africa HIV & AIDS Statistics." HIV and AIDS Information and Resources. AVERT, n.d. Web. 03 Nov. 2014. <http://www.avert.org/africa-hiv-aids-statistics.htm>.