Health crisis on horizon

Ed Langlois

With rising food costs across the globe, even more desperate young mothers may feel compelled to sell their bodies to feed their children.

That, says health expert Brian Willis, will exacerbate a singular crisis in both the women and the children.

“They are trying to help their kids, but it is killing them,” says Willis, a member of St. Mary Cathedral. He has formed a non-profit to research the issue and advocate for solutions.

Prostituted women face multiple exposures to HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases. Their rates of depression and suicidal tendencies soar. They tend to be anemic. Their children are often neglected and face trauma as they watch their mothers abused by clients.

Willis spent 12 years working with the Centers for Disease Control. During that time, he ran across the issue of prostituted women and their children, which no one was addressing. But his superiors asked him not to work on the issue because it is so sensitive. So he struck out on his own, aiming to gather information that would help prevent the problem.

“No mother should have to resort to prostitution,” Willis says.

To do research, he has so far visited China, Nepal, Rwanda, India, Bangladesh and Pakistan.

The group Willis wants to help is vast. About 20 million women across the globe are prostituted. At least half of them have children, an average of two apiece. That adds up to 30 million people stuck in the complex and perilous situation. Ironically, these families are veiled and dispersed, as the women keep their prostitution secret in small villages and neighborhoods scattered across the world.

“This happens in Oregon, too,” Willis says. “It’s a family issue. It’s a mother issue. It’s a child issue. It’s a human dignity issue.”

These are not career prostitutes in brothels. These women began offering themselves periodically out of despair, and they far outnumber the professionals. Many saw their husbands fritter away family resources on drink or drugs. Some of the men migrated to bigger cities to find work and never returned. In many places, that leaves women destitute.

In Indian culture, for example, if the husband dies or disappears, it is not acceptable for the woman to go back to her parents for help. That is seen as too big a strain on the family.

Willis has worked closely with the Rev. V. Paul Raja Rao, an Anglican priest who directs a holistic aid agency in rural Andhra Pradesh, in southern India. Rev. Rao’s projects focus on farming, health, finance and education for the poor in and around the city of Kurnool, which has a population of 700,000.

When Willis asked if Rev. Rao knew of any prostitutes in the region who would answer study questions, the priest came up with 500, with assurances that there are surely more. All of the women are dalits, or untouchables, who are not allowed to own land.

Most women were between 25 and 40, but a significant number were between 18 and 24. Nine in 10 showed clear signs of depression. About two thirds of that group was suicidal and half had already attempted suicide.

In India, the vaunted economic surge is not benefitting everyone, especially the 80 percent of the population that lives in rural areas. The boost is mostly isolated to those in the high-tech and banking fields.

Kurnool, about 125 miles south of Hyderabad, rests in a flat land of black and red soils. It became a cotton-growing region under British rule and the crop has tended to deplete the soil. When farmers have trouble, then farm workers lose their jobs. And now food costs are rising.

“People are leaving grinding poverty to do sex work,” Willis says.
Ironically, sex is not a big money-maker. In general, prostitutes in developing nations earn 50 cents or a dollar per day.

Women who offer their bodies can easily become the victims of trafficking — mobile sexual slavery controlled by power brokers. The danger is higher in cities. In some cases, the women’s children may also be picked up by pimps and used as sexual commodities.

“Don’t leave the village,” advises Rev. Rao.

One woman who went to work in the red-light district of Hyderabad left her 16-year-old daughter at their hut while she served a client. When the woman returned, the girl was gone. Neighbors reported that men abducted her. It’s likely the teen was forced into the sex trade.

Taking statistics in an area of Bangladesh north of Dacca, Willis found that 30 percent of the daughters of women in prostitution are themselves sold into prostitution by the time they are 13.

Even aside from that, having a prostituted mom is a strain on a child’s body and psyche.

Dr. Ginny Feldman, a longtime Portland pediatrician who has joined efforts with Willis, says children who have traumatic situations like that tend to have fragile health because of the stress. They also tend to smoke and abuse substances more.

When the mother is depressed, children tend to suffer neglect, Dr. Feldman says. That can include poor nutrition, lack of attention and sometimes long hours unattended. There are stories of the mothers returning home to find that toddlers have cut themselves by mistake and bled to death, or suffocated.

Sons of prostituted women, Willis’ research has found, often leave home by age 7 or 8 because the situation is so distressing. An alarming percentage pick up self-destructive behavior, like sniffing glue.

Around Kurnool, Rev. Rao and Willis are seeking to use education as one of the tools to help women avoid the destitution that might lead to prostitution and its related ills. In short, they are advocating publicly to girls to stay in school longer. That will increase their options as future wage-earners.

India’s rural education system and culture work against the plan. Most small towns have primary schools, but the girls often must travel for high school, which is seen as a burden. And by the time they are 12, daughters are also seen as something to marry off. In villages, girls are to be married by the time they are 15. If only marriage could be put off, then the women would be less likely to fall into crisis.

As another way to help women out of prostitution, Rev. Rao’s group offers $100 loans at good rates. The women can use the money to start a small business like sewing or washing. Some buy livestock and seed and rent a patch of ground. So far, 175 of the 500 have accepted the infusions and have been able to leave the sex trade. The rest are only waiting for more financing to become available, which means donors and financial institutions need to step forward.

Rev. Rao’s organization also acquires plots of land so the women can feed livestock on the fodder or grow fruits and vegetables. There are also courses in stress management.

“If you help the mother, you help the children,” Willis says.

In Katmandu, plans call for child care centers set up so women can leave their youngsters in a safe place while they try to rebuild their lives.

In interviews in all the developing nations, prostituted women said that a money-making activity would be the best means of helping them out of prostitution. It was not mere cash they wanted, but purposeful activity. The Katmandu women were more specific. They told Willis that what they really want is to leave prostitution and learn another skill, but that they need support in the mean time. Just the act of meeting with the mothers and interviewing them has had a positive effect. They felt cared for and so became hopeful.

In the same way, once health workers diagnosed the depression, the women felt better. Their desolation got a name and the possibility of treatment. Overall, the women were delighted to talk about what matters to them most — their children.
In the days after the meetings in India, one woman walked four hours back to Willis and his group just to say thank you.

Willis has called his organization Global Health Promise. The name emerged after he met with the prostituted mothers in Katmandu last year. As the conferences closed, the women asked Willis to keep working with them. He promised.

Global Health Promise concert set
An information session and concert benefitting Global Health Promise, an effort by The Task Force for Child Survival and Development to help trafficked and prostituted mothers and their children, will be held at 7:30 p.m. on Sunday, June 22 St. Mary Cathedral, NW 17th and Davis, Portland.