Child sex workers taught self-worth

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

"I am free." Onie, a 16-year old girl in bootcut jeans and a tight red T- shirt, writes the life-changing words on a piece of paper. A piece of paper that also tells her life's story.

"I lost the love from my father when he left when I was 13," she wrote. Dropping out of school and coming to Jakarta marked a big change in her life. And since then, as the scars on her right wrist attest, her days have been difficult.

This humorous, talkative girl named Onie, who says she comes from Karawang, West Java, makes her living as a prostitute.

Onie spent several months working as a "cafe girl" in Bambu Apus, East Jakarta, getting visitors to buy cheap beers for a Rp 2,000 tip and before they went giving them "thank-you kisses" or extras.

She recently left the cafe and declared herself a "freelancer," -- perhaps the reason for "I am free".

"'Free' for her could mean that she holds control over her life by earning her own money after leaving the cafe," said Burdah, a trainer from a non-governmental organization holding a week's child prostitute rehabilitation workshop. "But we really hope she meant it as a pledge to give up prostitution."

Onie and four other 14 to 18-year-old prostitutes from East Jakarta, along with eight children considered to be at-risk of entering the profession joined the four-day workshop aimed to initially build self-respect before equipping them with the skills to plan their future and work.

There are more than 5,000 children in the capital estimated to be engaged in prostitution.

"Although economic reasons have been cited for driving them into (prostitution), it is a lack of self-worth that makes them stay in it," the program coordinator, Hery, said. "If they want to quit, it should be their own decision."

While the girls did not openly discuss what they did for a living, the inference was clear.

"Wah, we do not sleep until 4 a.m.," said 17-year old Dina and her younger sister Mia when asked to write down their daily activities.

"Playing", "still playing" and "not yet home from playing" are the words they fill in as activities in time slots where most children their age would have simply written "sleeping".

At the end of each session, the girls were asked to identify anything they thought was wrong in what they wrote.

"What you have written on the paper is now history, you will leave these ideas behind and start making changes," trainer Teguh said.

For several awkward seconds, the girls who mostly came from disadvantaged and abusive backgrounds, sat still and stared blankly.

"We use two kinds of time-consuming approaches to make them speak, group activity and one-on-one communication," said program coordinator Hery. "This is the kind of program where you can limit the budget but cannot set a deadline. If you rush things, they will end up running."

The girls were also subtly taught to measure happiness not by how much they earn but by interviewing local farmers in Ciawi, Bogor.

"The one I interviewed said he only earned Rp 200,000 a month, but he seemed to be living OK," Onie said.

At the end of their second day at the workshop, happiness was as simple as splashing water on each other and getting themselves soaking wet in the river.

Something that children of all ages do. (003)