The Cycle of Poverty and Prostitution

Photos taken in Sosua, Dominican Republic, a town with a booming sex trade.  This town is one of the major hubs here for sex tourism.  Photos by Jessica Ensing Photography.

When I share my messages, stories, and videos about child prostitution with friends, family, acquaintances, and the world wide web, the responses I get vary, but there is a general sense of surprise, disgust, shock, horror, and a desire to help.  People say "I can't believe that could ever happen" and "That's so awful" and "I'm so happy for what you're doing".  Trying to imagine a sweet innocent child as precious as the ones in our video forced into a life of prostitution is something that breaks all of our hearts and makes us want to help each of them.

But what about adult women in prostitution?  That subject is one often met entirely differently.  I've seen people point, laugh, make jokes, and use synonym words for adult prostitutes as a slang or derogatory term.  When sharing about wanting to help these women, I've been met with "It's her choice", "If she didn't want to do it, she wouldn't do it", and "She's making good money, why interfere?".  Some of the tourists who come here and buy prostitutes have actually felt they were helping these women by paying them a good fare.

Here is the thing that they don't know. 

Almost all of the women who now prostitute were raped and/or sexually abused as children.  Most of them were forced into becoming prostitutes when they were just children.  They learn this trade skill young instead of going to school, and after a few years, all other options they had ever hoped for seem to fade away for them.  Many of them start having their own children as teens, young teens, and they continue prostituting as a means for providing for their families.  Not because it was what they had dreamed and aspired to as a lifelong career, but because they love their children and want to care for them.  Their lives are not easy.  I have had women roll up their shirt sleeves and pant legs to show me scars from men who have cut them and beat them.  And these are only the physical scars.  The emotional scars run far deeper than the eye can see.

Let me tell you the story of A (name will remain unidentified), a woman who we discussed during our ministry meeting this week who our team has been working with.  A grew up in a severely abusive home.  Her brother died young of AIDS.  Her older sister became a drug addict and once tried to kill her.  Her mother abandoned her.  She became pregnant at the age of 12 and was "married off" to the older man who impregnated her.  She was forced to start prostituting to provide for her baby before I ever took my first communion or had my first period.  She didn't choose this life.  She didn't pick it for herself.  Now A is 28 years old with 3 children and is trying to turn her life around.  When asked about her prostituting, she feels ashamed and sad.  But she is trying to do something about it.  A is enrolled in university now in Santo Domingo studying tourism with the hope she will someday get a job in one of the resorts here.  She prostitutes on weekends and school breaks to make her tuition payments, in the hope that someday she will leave prostitution forever. This will help A to break a continuous cycle in her family that is so common here in the DR.  A cycle which could affect A's own children if she wasn't making the choice and putting forth the effort to do something to stop it.

We also learned a similar story this week of a woman named E.  Another woman who desperately wants to leave prostitution and make a better life for herself.  Different details, but the same strong desire for a new start.

Your prayers and support go to help these women start over.  And whether at the age of 8 or 28 or even 88, I think every person in the world deserves that fresh start.  A fresh start at reaching their dreams and living a safe and fulfilling life.

Will you take a moment right now to please pray for these two women who hope and dream for a new life and a better future?  Please pray for our team to have the strength and wisdom to help them in making a fresh start.

Thank you for your continued prayers and support.  It is making all the difference to women like A and E to have a new start in reaching their dreams.