Editorial:According to Wikipedia Mali is considered to be one of the poorest nations in the world and For Nigerian Ladies to call it their home and debase themselves in the infamous oldest Profession in the world things must be really bad for our Ladies here in naija .Prostitiution has become a thriving Export Service in our dear country.Young ladies are being sold into a mini slavery like existence not only in Europe but in neighbouring African States.SENATORS & LEGISLATORs may God have mercy on your daughters as your decisions have turned our young men into Yahoo Criminals & our Girls into women of easy virtue.noelene.
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Photo Reverend Raymond Map of Mali & Malian Ladies
Rev Raymond moved to Mali in 1996 because, accoding to him, he felt an urge to take the gospel there. Little did he know what was waiting for him there. ''Mali is a country with the majority of its population being Muslims. The people are very friendly, so it was not difficult to adapt,'' he said. Soon, Raymond noticed an ugly trend: Nigerian girls were being trafficked to Mali in droves for prostitution. ''It was not as bad as it is now," he said. "It has become a serious problem because of the unending poverty and unemployment. It is Nigerian men who bring the girls to Mali under the pretext that they are taking them to Europe. When they get to Mali, they are abandoned to Brothel owners who become their masters.''
Ironically, he noted, the brothel owners are mostly Nigerian women from Edo State. ''A brothel can contain as many as 1,000 Nigerian girls. In fact, I know of one woman who has three such brothels, each containing 1000 Nigerian girls. Each girl is made to pay as much as N2 million, to offset the cost of transporting her from Nigeria to Mali. The same brothel operators would later go back to Nigeria and build houses in their states and nobody would know the source of their wealth.''
The experience of Nigerian girls trafficked to Mali for prostitution is indeed harrowing because of peculiar circumstances. ''Prostitution is legal in Mali. Prostitutes pay stipulated amounts to the Malian government and police to maintain order in their brothels. This makes it quite difficult to rescue girls who were tricked into this job and have no desire to continue in it,'' Rev Raymond said. ''I took it upon myself to bring the girls home after I started coming in contact with them. Some who have paid up their debts are able to leave and seek refuge in churches. Since I work with all churches, I get to meet such girls.''
He acknowledges that many underage girls were still trapped in brothels in Mali. ''A few of these girls have escaped. The brothels are usually very secured. Any girl brought there is denied contact with the outside world. You are in bondage until you can pay off your debt. Some have taken ill, died and have been buried within the brothels' premises. I have tried to get the Nigerian embassy to intervene but they keep telling me there is nothing they can do, because they are on foreign soil. The Consular even said he had gone as far as calling on the governors of Edo and Delta states to get involved in bringing their girls back home. Some are very willing to come back and we need assistance to bring them home. The Nigerian government should get involved. It is now a matter of national honour because our image in Mali is tarnished. We are now known as a nation of prostitutes.''
While thousands of trapped girls await help from the government, the Nigerian Christian community in Mali is not folding its arms. There are lots of churches who have taken these girls in, pending when they would be taken back to Nigeria. ''You know I have been doing it on my own before. It was not until two months ago that I learnt about a government agency called NAPTIP, which is responsible for these sort of things. It was a border officer who saw me bringing back three girls to Nigeria that told me of NAPTIP and even gave me their number. I have been bringing girls to them ever since. But we need more involvement from government,''he said.
He recalled moments of frustration when he tried together with a catholic priest to get the cooperation of the Nigerian embassy in assisting with transportation. ''There is a priest in the catholic cathedral in Mali who has been involved too in assisting trafficked girls. He was overjoyed when he learnt of NAPTIP and went with me to the embassy. We wanted to discuss how these girls would be brought home. When we realised the embassy was not going to assist us with transportation we were so frustrated.
''If the Nigerian government decides to take action, a BRT bus would be filled with girls coming back home to Nigeria every month. It is not easy to do this alone. I am a married man with five children, but I cannot fold my arms and watch these girls suffer. At the same time, it is also a big sacrifice on the part of my family when I divert money meant for them to bring these girls back. We need the Nigerian government to be more proactive. This trafficking must stop. If they secure the assistance of the Malian government, it would be easier to break this network of criminals who are exploiting our girls.''
Statistics:
Amongst the activities of the "West African Project Against AIDS" in Mali, numerous interventions are being conducted in the brothels by the local NGOs. It rapidly appeared that it's necessary to dispose the mapp of prostitution profile to enhance the coverage and results of our interventions. OBJECTIVES: 1. to determine locations, types and number of brothels in our zone of intervention, 2. to determine the socio-demographic characteristics of the prostitutes working in the brothels and their clients, 3. to evaluate the feasability of preventive interventions towards prostitutes and their clients in these brothels 4. to make suggestions for improving the effectivness of interventions in those areas. METHODOLOGY: A crosswise survey has been realized during February-march 2001 in the brothels of the following cities: Bamako, Sikasso, Koutiala and Zegoua. NGO investigators working in the prostitution circles administered an individual questionnaire to consenting barmen, women prostitutes and their clients. Analysis was made with Epi-info 6.04. RESULTS: More than 212 establishments were taked census and divided up into three categories: 65 brothels, 85 bars whith guestrooms and 62 refreshment bars. During that we interviewed 139 prostitutes, 281 clients and 180 barmen. We've indenfieded many types of prostitutions; going from commercial sex- workers into the brothels seaters to roamers and casual to occasional prostitution. The prostitutes were mostly from Nigeria 47%, Mali 25,5%, Ghana 11,7% and from surrounding countries in the sub-region. The average age was 26,4 and ranged from 12 to 47 years old. The clients of brothels were from all categories of populationn CONCLUSION: These patterns of prostutution's profiles bring us to develop integrated and simultaneous strategies towards categories of prostitutes and theirs clients
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