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VENEZUELA:
Sexually
Exploited Teens Find a Way Off
the Street
Humberto Márquez
CARACAS, (IPS) - Teenage
girls who are sexually exploited
not far from the health and
labour ministries, courthouse
and Congress in the Venezuelan
capital have found assistance in
a shelter financed with
international aid.
”I used to live on the streets,
with my son,” says Joanna, a
thin 16-year-old with a
20-month-old infant. ”But a few
months ago I found a helping
hand - a daycare centre for my
baby and a wonderful opportunity
to return to the classroom.”
Joanna (not her real name) is
one of the 26 young female
students who have been taking
courses for the past three
months in hairdressing, computer
basics, nursing and crafts, as
well as workshops on
self-esteem, personal growth and
sexual and reproductive health
in the group home run by the
non-government organisation
Ambar in a poor neighbourhood on
the west side of Caracas.
The participants ”have joined
the programme of their own free
will,” says Nury Pernía, who
created Ambar - which stands for
Women's Association for Welfare
and Reciprocal Assistance - 10
years ago.
”These are girls between the
ages of 10 and 17, a number of
whom have children,” she
explains to IPS. ”The connected
day care centre is attended by
their kids, as well as dozens of
children from the local
community - the working class
neighbourhood of Propatria - and
the children of adult women who
were victims of sexual
exploitation.”
”I came because a friend told me
about this place,” says Joselín,
another of the girls at the
group home. ”My son is very well
taken care of - that's the most
important thing - and I have
learned hairdressing and
computer skills. My next step
will be internships in
companies.”
The girls and young women are
also getting ready to open a
small shop to sell their pottery
and hand-dyed and embroidered
fabrics, ”so they can earn some
money of their own and realise
that they can make money without
having their bodies exploited,”
says Pernía.
The shelter receives technical
support from the independent
Italian humanitarian aid
organisation CESVI (Cooperazione
e Sviluppo, or Cooperation and
Development), and financing from
the European Commission, which
is providing 116,000 dollars for
18 months, with the aim of
assisting a total of 300
sexually exploited girls and
adolescents.
The initiative emerged in Ambar,
which was working exclusively
with adult women, after it
carried out a study in 2001 of
104 cases of teen prostitutes
who worked on seven streets,
avenues or plazas in Caracas.
”Of those girls, eight have
already died: two of AIDS and
the rest as a result of street
violence,” Pernía says sadly.
Fifty-eight of the girls
surveyed in 2001 said they were
forced into prostitution, while
46 said they entered the trade
voluntarily. In addition, 57
percent said they used no birth
control whatsoever.
”In Venezuela (a country of more
than 23 million people), there
may be as many as 45,000 child
and adolescent victims of
prostitution, but only a small
percentage of cases are
visible,” Luis Torres, another
activist with Ambar, tells IPS.
He based his estimate on studies
by the World Health Organisation,
as well as the one conducted by
Ambar.
But ”the cases we studied were
so visible that the girls
practically worked outside the
doors of some of Venezuela's
main political institutions,”
says Pernía.
”One plaza where you can see
these girls is practically in
front of - less than 100 metres
away from - the ministries of
labour, health and social
development, and next to a
metropolitan police station.
”And just 100 metres further on
is the courthouse - where the
juvenile court sits too - as
well as Congress. Not far from
these are the city government
offices, the education ministry
and the government palace,” she
adds.
According to Ambar, the
government has failed to design
concrete measures to deal with
those who foment child sexual
exploitation. ”The laws merely
state that children are a
priority, and meetings are held,
but none of it has gone beyond
discussions and coordination,”
remarks Pernía.
”We NGOs can undertake
initiatives or develop pilot
programmes, but a comprehensive
policy that would help create,
for example, group homes like
this one around the country is
only possible if the state takes
on the task,” she argues.
”As time goes by without
anything being done,
prostitution rings that
facilitate trafficking in
persons continue to operate and
expand. Venezuela is a 'bridge'
through which women from other
Andean countries, the Caribbean
or Brazil are sent to Europe and
North America to be sexually
exploited,” according to Pernía.
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