Dear all! I will begin to thank the Standard Newspaper for this great opportunity to let me have my own column here. I love The Gambia and I have the greatest respect for you all but when there is something I see or hear that I react on I will write about it to share my thoughts with you. When we think about prostitution the first thought that comes in mind is young women with short skirts, high heels and seductive manners. This is one part of it, the most obvious part, but there are others, much deeper and more serious.
Because of the last 22 years of oppression under the tyrant YaHya Jammeh the economy for the whole country had reached rock bottom. Before that you had to deal with the aftermaths as the colonialists had left the Gambia to manage on its own.
It is understandable that the rising after this fall will be long and hard, there are many problems to deal with and sometimes it must be really hard for the government to even know where to begin. In the middle of all these mixed problems we must not forget those who struggle in silence and shame β the women who have been forced in to prostitution.
Yes, dear reader, they are forced in to prostitution because of poverty, because of the lack of options. According to Indexmundi. This is much too high and that causes huge problems for the individuals, families and the whole society.
If the family is lucky at least one person has a job but that person also has a big responsability to support a big family. There are no safety nets around the families, no one who is able to reach out a helping hand because all are as poor. They can threaten the employee to obedience by showing what the consequences will be if the employee gets fired.
