By Tabora Bojang
The National Assembly Member for Lower Saloum has called government action against what he called rising prostitution in the country, warning that if unaddressed, the scourge will hamper the country’s efforts to tackle HIV and AIDS.
According to the United Nations Programme on HIV and AIDS data, an estimated 26,068 people are living with HIV\AIDS in The Gambia, and that for the past one year, only 14,717 know their status out of which 9,554 are receiving treatment.
Sainey Jawara made these remarks as part of his contribution in the open discussion of the budget session. Finance Minister Seedy Keita in his budget speech had described HIV and AIDS as a public health problem in the Gambia with 1.5 percent prevalence in the general population and disclosing also that government has received a grant of $23,415,791 to continue fighting against the virus.
Reacting to these developments during the adjournment debate Thursday, the Lower Saloum Member argued that these funds may not add value to the fight against HIV and AIDS if more efforts are not taken to tackle prostitution and sex work, which are the primary sources of HIV and AIDS.
“Just take a walk in the streets any time after 7 in the evening, and you are likely to be grabbed at the hand by sex workers. The streets are full with sex workers. How do you control HIV and AIDS when all corners are filled with prostitutes? Where do you go around the world and see such things? And we call this democracy,” Jawara said.
But the lawmaker himself came under scrutiny by his fellow members with some of them asking how did he seem to know about the issue this well. NAM Jawara replied: “I am a citizen and I walk out in the streets. So, don’t ask me how I know about these. We all know it. None of you here can deny it. We have to control this trend. I recommend that the Ministry of Health should come up with responsibilities to ensure any sex worker who wants to make prostitution a business is insured with a document and without that this new money received to fight HIV will go in vain”.
