About three weeks ago I wrote an article congratulating Mrs Patricia Kaliati and her ministry, the Ministry of Gender, Children and Community Development, for proposing a regulation that would protect “sex workers” in Malawi.
In the article I agued against Human Resources Consultative Committees’ stance to discourage the bill because Malawi was a “God fearing nation.” I also made it clear that I am not a prostitution advocate but that I believed that the only way forward was to acknowledge its existence and try to deal with it.
Nearly four weeks after latter, allafrica.com has reported that a similar plan has been put in place by the same Ministry; they are planning to offer “prostitutes low-interest loans to start small business in return for abandoning sex work is generating controversy.”
Once more, I am in full agreement with Mrs Kaliati and her ministry; and I have to emphasise that I do not believe that any well meaning Malawian could try to block the Ministry’s brave move, which could yet turn out to be crucial step in combating HIV/Aids and other sexual transmitted diseases.
Remember: the first step to overcoming any problem is to admit its existence; the second step is to find its cause or roots; the third step is to devise a strategy of overcoming it. This is exactly what the Ministry of Gender have done; kudos to Mrs Kaliati and her Ministry for devising the plan when they knew fully well that it will attract criticism.
According to Ayam Maeresa, a special assistant to Mrs Kaliati, “most [sex workers] leave school at an early age, get pregnant, and then [they] have to provide for a child, so they end up on the streets as a way to earn a bit of money.” Kaliati herself added that most sex workers have been driven “into prostitution” by poverty.
I know that there are a lot of women in Malawi who have hard the unfortunate situation of having unwanted children at a tender age and did not go into prostitution. That is the world, we all react differently to similar situations; some are weak and some are stronger than other; and it is the duty of the government, through its ministries to the help the weak.
However, looking at the two key findings from the Ministry of Gender on what leads women into prostitution, it should be easy for any rational person to understand the Ministry’s position.
I am aware that the ministry has yet to indicate the sought of businesses they would be offering “the sex worker”. I am also aware that this is only a plan and not all plans come into fruition. Nonetheless, this remains an important proposal insofar as combating HID/Aids is concerned.
I would like to appeal to all the moralists in Malawi to always put the interests of the country first. Criticism must be constructive and practical. We have been hearing how “God fearing” Malawi is; yet sex trade prevails. The epidemic is killing thousands of people every year. Yet we prefer to be seen as “God fearing”?
I often wonder about the role fathers in all this; we have a lot of fathers in Malawi, whose children qualify as “fatherless”, only because the fathers have opted to stay away. Remember Chifundo? Madonna’s adopted daughter, her father opted out; he only appeared after international media had paid him to claim the child.
I would urge all “God fearing” moralists in Malawi to start looking at these issues more seriously, as they are just “immoral”, if not worse. We need to start seeing things as they are; not how we want them to be. That is the only way forward.