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

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| © Hope Mafaranga

January 12, 2015 Author Hope Mafaranga Country Uganda Filed under HIV and wider development issues 2 Comments

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.