Every Tuesday at BHESP Kimathi is Juice Tuesday, where sex workers come together in a safe space and share their work experiences while receiving free condoms, contraceptives, ARVs, Prep pills, and most importantly, free advice from Betty, who hosts them. They do this while enjoying a glass of free juice. Without revealing her identity, Betty shares a story of a young sex worker who has just been introduced to BHESP by one of her colleagues. We will call her lady X
Betty…. Welcome to BHESP, as you can see we are a family here and we try to help each other and offer advice on how well to carry out our job. Please feel welcome and tell us something about yourself.
Lady X… It is good to be here, I never knew of such a group, I have had very wild experiences since I started sex work about a year ago. I have had sex with as many as 12 men on a single day. The busiest times are early in the morning when men in business suits are on their way to work, or during lunchtime when they can sneak off for a quickie.
I charge my clients depending on their social status, mainly between Ksh 300 and 500 per shot and Ksh 1000- 3000 for a sleepover. Since I am pretty enough and light-skinned, which many men prefer, I can make at least Ksh 2000 on a bad day and Ksh 5000 on a very good day. It is always about the money to me and I am always in a hurry to get it over with the client as quickly as possible. I spent no time talking or even pretending to be interested in the men. I’m sorry to say that, more often than not I have had unprotected sex, and it is truly by the grace of God I never caught anything.
Betty…. Here, we advocate for responsible sexual encounters, and we are going to show you how to use a condom, both male and female condoms, and we will give you some to go and use. We are also going to test your HIV status so that when you are with your clients, you are 100% certain of your status.