NICARAGUA: REFUGE SET UP TO GET PROSTITUTES OFF OF THE STREETS

(13 Sep 1996) Spanish/Nat

A safe place to sleep and sewing lessons are luring young prostitutes off the streets of Managua and — hopefully — into a better life.

In the last of a three-part look at the sex industry in Nicaragua, APTV visits a halfway house which has set itself the task of rescuing young women from a mire of drugs and prostitution.

With 60 per cent unemployment, this is the only kind of work a growing number of Nicaraguan women can find.

For many young women prostitution is their first taste of work — often when they should still be at school.

The women earn just a few dollars a time, but in impoverished Nicaragua this is considered good money.

But it’s a tough and dangerous life. Few of these prostitutes manage to save any money and for many of them the only way out is an early grave.

The Quincho Barrilete halfway house in downtown Managua is a small light amid all this darkness.

Eighteen girls between ten and 20 years old find a refuge here from their lives on the streets.

Sewing lesson give the women a skill which may come in useful once they leave here.

The girls’ stories give a glimpse into an almost unimaginably harsh existence.

SOUNDBITE: (Spanish)
Every day I go out onto the street. I’ve been grabbed by men, punched in the face by the police. (medium shot) I sniff glue. I give myself to men for five pesos. When I don’t have any money I give myself for three pesos because, like they say, you have to get on with life.
SUPER CAPTION: Nubia de los Angeles, 18-year-old prostitute

SOUNDBITE: (Spanish)
My first time was when my mother gave me away when I was little, when I was no more than seven. She gave me away and she gave away all my sisters as well. So I was adopted and she began trying to destroy my life when I was with my adopted parents. She started to make my life miserable and that’s when I took to the streets.
SUPER CAPTION: Arlen Carina Ruiz, 15-year-old prostitute

SOUNDBITE: (Spanish)
The truth is what do I gain from this addiction? At midnight I go out and all there’s out there for me is to be stabbed with a knife, death, the morgue or prison. I’m grateful to him because he’s helping me.
SUPER CAPTION: Jaquelin de los Angeles, 14-year-old drug addict

The refuge was set up three years ago by Oliver Steller, a Belgian tourist who was horrified by what he saw on the streets of Managua.

SOUNDBITE: (Spanish)
A healthy place for them to live, where they can learn skills, where they can express themselves artistically and, above all, to provide them with psychological and emotional support, because all of these girls are seriously emotionally disturbed.
SUPER CAPTION: Oliver Seller, Belgian director of centre

Seller recognises that most of the women slip back into their old lives once they leave his care.

But the refuge he runs represents virtually the sole lifeline for Managua’s lost generation.

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