‘Economic needs make people become sex workers’

PEOPLE are not born sex workers but are forced into the trade because of economic needs that drives their decisions and choices in life, a workshop on using the law and legal policy in the response to HIV/AIDS was told.
Lou McCallum of the AIDS Projects Management Group (APMG) last Tuesday highlighted this to participants at the Lamana Hotel in Port Moresby.
The session provided an overview of the factors that helped or hindered HIV prevention and care efforts.
It also covered policies, laws, practices and background issues such as access to education, poverty, literacy that affected the capacity of people and communities to respond to HIV.
He said fear, stigma and discrimination were at the centre of the issue as many of the sex workers were still facing problems in the society where people had not accepted them.
“We have to change the way we relate to others,” he said.
He said there were cultural pressures in the society where many decisions were based on.
McCallum said that PNG had so many cultures that often conflicted with the decisions that were made in life.
“Culture is the norm of a setting or simply anything that is seen not normal or part of that culture.”
However, he said cultural perceptions could be changed to make sex workers feel accepted.