“My children will not starve while I have my body to sell”

At Katwe-Kabatoro landing site on the shores of Lake George in Uganda’s Kasese district, the HIV epidemic is taking another twist. With few other opportunities to earn a living, many women sell their bodies in exchange for fish, while others face dangerous working conditions in the lake’s salt mining industry.

Susan Kabugho, a 47-year-old mother of six, says she has sex with more than five men in order to survive. “There is no way I am going to look at my children starving, yet there are men here willing to give me fish to feed my children. I have to improvise,” she says confidently.

Kabugho is among the many women at the landing site who sell sex. She says she has one man who brings fish, another who pays her rent, another who pays her children’s school fees, another who buys food for her family and one who takes her out for social events.

According to Kabugho, women in the area have to survive in this way because there is a lack of land for food cultivation and high unemployment. “We are poor and, as we are surrounded by Queen Elizabeth National Park, we cannot cultivate the land. The park authorities will arrest us for encroaching on the park. Our only alternative is to sell our bodies to get food,” she says.

High HIV prevalence

Angella Muhindo, village health team member, says that Katwe-Kabatoro has an HIV prevalence of 20 per cent – much higher than the national prevalence of 7.3 per cent. She attributes the high rate of HIV to high population of women at the lake and alcohol.

“At Katwe-Kabatoro we have three Ws which are water, wine and women. Men go to fish in the waters, then they have money to buy alcohol and after that they have women at will,” she says.

According to Muhindo, HIV prevalence is also high among young people aged 15-18. “We have many bars and lodges here and the owners bring in young girls to work for them in order to attract customers. These big and old men pay for sex with these girls and then tell their friend, who goes to the same girl. The chain of HIV continues like that,” she says.

Dangers of salt mining

While sex work brings with it the risk of HIV, many women in the area mine salt from the lake, which also causes serious health problems. Jane Tibahwerwayo, a 49-year-old mother of five, says mining was traditionally a male job but due to a lack employment opportunities, women are turning to this dangerous work.

Tibahwerwayo says the salty, highly acidic water is bad for women’s reproductive health as it can damage the uterus and cause infertility. She said the water is so acidic that if it drops in someone’s ear, it can even cause death.

“We have to heavily pad ourselves in order to go salt mining. The water is so acidic, if it gets into the private parts, it goes straight to the uterus and damages it. Some of my friends have suffered this kind of damage and I have seen many lose their uterus. The result is that they will never have children. It is heartbreaking, but we have no alternative means of survival,” she says.

Male miners also face health risks from mining. Some use condoms to try and protect their penises from damage by the acidic water. “My father lost his penis,” said John, a salt miner. “We took him to Kagando hospital but he could not be treated there. We were referred to Mulango where he died.”

Search for solutions

Innocent Rwego is the principal investigator of International Development Research Center (IDRC), an international organisation which carries out research on health issues. He says IDRC has launched a project to work with the communities around Queen Elizabeth National Park to find lasting solutions to some of the challenges they face.

Rwego says a team of health professionals, social scientists, natural resource managers, ecologists and economists are working together on a series of studies. “Priorities will be identified using an eco-health approach, whereby communities will participate in identifying, ranking and prioritising health and environmental challenges in their population,” he says.

He adds that IDRC will also focus their efforts in addressing the issue of HIV and AIDS at the landing site and among the mining communities at Lake Katwe.

Florence Namara, town councillor for Katwe-Kabatoro, says: “We want the government and Uganda Wildlife Authority to allocate a piece of land to communities living around the park and the lake, so women can start growing food for their families and to sell. The cost of living is so high here and poverty is at its highest level. That’s why women have to sell their bodies for food.”

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