Female youths in the Crab Town community in Aberdeen have told Concord Times that they are looking forward to the Ministry of Youth Affairs to consider them as integral to the ministry’s development agenda for youths across the country.
“We have been hearing in the media that the Ministry of Youth Affairs is dealing with issues concerning youths in the country. We want them to know that we the youthsof Crab Town community in Aberdeen are ready to work with the ministry,” they said.
A representative of the group, Mabinty Sesay, said it was not their wish or desire to be domiciled in the rundown Crab Town community, but that they were left with no alternative as a result of the high cost of housing in the city.
“We are paying the sum of Le600,000 per year a rent without water, electricity as well as toilet facility,” she revealed.
Another member, a 20 year-old female youth, who refused to be named, identified herself as a commercial sex worker. She said she is co-habiting with her friend and that her dream is to raise money to take care of her child, since as a single mother she has the onus to care and support her.
She said she was in school in Makeni, northern Sierra Leone, where she went up to junior secondary school (JSS) II before she took up prostitution.
“Two years ago, an organization organized for us a workshop on HIV/AIDS and promised to support us so that we could continue our schooling, but they have failed to honour their promise,” she narrated without naming the organization. “I am ready to further my education provided I have the support.”
She said she took up prostitution as it was her only means of survival.
