Kajol Shows the Way to Women in the Sex Trade

SEPTEMBER 2009 — Kajol's initiation into sex work was tragically similar to that of many young women who come to Dhaka looking for work. She was kidnapped and forced into the trade, but had nowhere else to go after a police raid freed her from one year of captivity. Her family rejected her because they didn't believe she had been kidnapped, so she continued in sex work to survive, this time based in a hotel.

That is where Kajol met a peer educator from Bangladesh Women's Health Coalition (BWHC) who told her about the great risks to her health she was taking and the services available to her through the coalition's HIV and STI Prevention Project, which receives funding and support from USAID through Family Health International.

Kajol was convinced to go to the BWHC health center and then started visiting regularly. At the center, she had access to voluntary HIV counseling and testing, diagnosis and treatment of sexually transmitted infections (STIs), condoms, peer support, and behavior-change messages.

Her enthusiasm for what she found and BWHC's mission caused her to be selected as a peer educator who would know the best way of communicating with female sex workers about HIV and other STIs and other health issues.

As Kajol learned more and more about the extremely high health risks involved in sex work, she became more determined to leave it. As she put it, "Life is very valuable. No one can buy it with money."

As a peer educator, Kajol goes to hotels, reaches out female sex workers, and brings them to the clinic. They trust her because she was one of them. After more than four years as a peer educator, Kajol stopped relying on sex work for an income. She cites this fact as she declares, "A person can achieve anything if he or she really wants it."

She added, "When I was a sex worker I used to feel very bad and that my life had no value. But now I feel good about myself because I am taking care of others and educating them."

PHOTO: Kajol teaches sex workers about HIV and how to prevent STIs at the health center in Dhaka run by the Bangladesh Women's Health Coalition, with FHI and USAID support. (FHI/Bangladesh)