Speaker 1: Welcome to Spotlight Advanced. I'm Bruce Gulland.
Speaker 2: And I'm Megan Nolette. Spotlight uses a special English method
Speaker 2: of broadcasting. It is easier for people to understand no
Speaker 2: matter where in the world they live.
Speaker 1: Milka Onyango is a single mother of six. She lives
Speaker 1: near Lake Victoria in Kenya. It is one of the
Speaker 1: largest lakes in the world. Like many other women in
Speaker 1: the area, Onyango sells fish to survive. To get these fish,
Speaker 1: she must buy them from local fishermen, but often these
Speaker 1: fishermen want more than just her money. To get the
Speaker 1: best fish, she must have sex with the fishermen. This
Speaker 1: dangerous system is called boya or sex for fish. Every
Speaker 1: time on Yango agrees to jiboya, she risks getting diseases
Speaker 1: like HIV, but she feels like she has no other choice.
Speaker 1: She has no other way to support a family.
Speaker 2: Jaboya is very common in towns around Lake Victoria. Women
Speaker 2: trapped in poverty feel forced to have sex with men
Speaker 2: to survive. Because of jaboya. The rate of HIV infection
Speaker 2: is very high in these areas. Thirty to forty percent
Speaker 2: of people in these fishing villages have this deadly disease.
Speaker 1: This is a very bad situation, but it is not hopeless.
Speaker 1: One small organization is trying to change things for good.
Speaker 1: It is called no Sex for Fish. Today's spotlight is
Speaker 1: on no sex for Fish.
Speaker 2: Fishing is the way many people make money in towns
Speaker 2: around Lake Victoria, but the fishing business is divided between
Speaker 2: men and women. Men own boats and fish. Women buy
Speaker 2: the fish and bring them to the market. Their culture
Speaker 2: does not permit women to own boats. Most women will
Speaker 2: never even sail in one.
Speaker 1: The fishing business has been this way for generations, but
Speaker 1: jaboya is new. For many years, there was enough fish
Speaker 1: for everyone. But in the nineteen seventies things began to change.
Speaker 1: Pollution caused many fish to die off, and people began
Speaker 1: catching too many fish. Soon fishermen could not provide enough
Speaker 1: good fish. They began asking for sex as well as money.
Speaker 1: Women who would give them sex would go get the
Speaker 1: best fish. Those who did not agree to djiboya might
Speaker 1: not have fish to sell at all.
Speaker 2: Not every fisherman required jiboya, but most women in the
Speaker 2: fishing trade accepted it. They had no other way to
Speaker 2: get fish, so they felt that they had no other choice.
Speaker 2: Ajiing is a woman who lives in Kenya by Lake Victoria.
Speaker 2: She works in the fishing trade. She spoke to the
Speaker 2: New Humanitarian about Jaboya.
Speaker 3: When you are a woman and you want to get
Speaker 3: into the business of selling fish, you must be ready
Speaker 3: to lose your pride. You must use your body to
Speaker 3: get what you need, being ready to give sex as
Speaker 3: and when it is demanded by the fisherman. It means
Speaker 3: that you'll survive here. You know you can get HIV.
Speaker 3: But then you remember you have a family that needs
Speaker 3: to be provided for. You say, let me die providing
Speaker 3: for them.
Speaker 1: This situation remained the same for many years. Women in
Speaker 1: poverty did not have the power to change anything, so
Speaker 1: they sacrificed their health for their children.
Speaker 2: The men who asked for Jaboya also suffered. Fishing on
Speaker 2: Lake Victoria is a very hard job. The fishermen row
Speaker 2: around the lake. They must pull up large catches of
Speaker 2: fish by hand, and there are dangerous animals in the water.
Speaker 2: One of these animals is the hippopotamus. A hippopotamus is
Speaker 2: one of the largest animals in the world. It does
Speaker 2: not hunt humans, but it often destroys boats, and if
Speaker 2: it feels afraid, it will kill a person. This, along
Speaker 2: with HIV means fishermen do not live long. Many die
Speaker 2: before they are fifty years old.
Speaker 1: In twenty ten, things began to change. Justina Bura is
Speaker 1: a woman who lives in a village on Lake Victoria.
Speaker 1: One day, she and several other women in her village
Speaker 1: came up with an idea to get rid of jaboya,
Speaker 1: women would have to do things differently. What if instead
Speaker 1: of buying fish, the women caught their own fish, Or
Speaker 1: what if they owned the boats and they paid the
Speaker 1: men to fish for them. That way, they would be
Speaker 1: in charge of the fish, they would not have to
Speaker 1: have sex to get it, and they would help lower
Speaker 1: HIV rates in the area for both men and women.
Speaker 2: One day, Obura talked to the Victoria Institute for Research
Speaker 2: on Environment and Development or FIRED. The group helped her
Speaker 2: raise money for boats, and together with other women, she
Speaker 2: formed an organization called No Sex for Fish. No Sex
Speaker 2: for Fish would provide women with the means to catch
Speaker 2: their own fish. After several years, women in the area
Speaker 2: owned over sixty boats.
Speaker 1: Women who received these boats gained a new kind of freedom.
Speaker 1: Many were able to pay for their children schooling. Women
Speaker 1: owning boats helps other people avoid jaboya as well. Instead
Speaker 1: of buying their fish from men, they can buy it
Speaker 1: from other women. Most still live in poverty, but they
Speaker 1: no longer have to have dangerous sex to provide for
Speaker 1: their children. Agnes is a woman who now owns and
Speaker 1: No Sex for Fish boat. She spoke to take Part
Speaker 1: Live about how her life has changed.
Speaker 4: Life was bad. My husband died when I was very young.
Speaker 4: One of my children died of hunger. I did take
Speaker 4: part in Jeboya before to help us survive. I did
Speaker 4: it even before my husband died because he made so
Speaker 4: little money. Before we got boats, we had sex with men.
Speaker 4: But now that has ended.
Speaker 2: No Sex for Fish has helped fight Jaboya and it
Speaker 2: has helped show what it is like for women in
Speaker 2: Kenya who live in poverty. But the program has had
Speaker 2: its problems. Sometimes storms destroy the boats or flooding makes
Speaker 2: it difficult to fish. Even without these problems, it is
Speaker 2: a difficult life.
Speaker 1: But the women of Lake Victoria would not give up.
Speaker 1: They would not go back to the way things were before.
Speaker 1: Patrick Higden works for the charity World Connect. It is
Speaker 1: an organization that helped build new boats. He spoke to
Speaker 1: NPR about their support for No Sex for Fish.
Speaker 5: No matter what happens. We believe in these women. We
Speaker 5: believe in the work they are doing to help control
Speaker 5: HIV and they are helping women fish sellers be financially independent.
Speaker 5: They have an amazing need to solve this difficult problem.
Speaker 5: It is an uphill climb and that encourages me that
Speaker 5: they feel brave enough to take that on.
Speaker 2: No sex for fish will not change jaboya on their own.
Speaker 2: To end jiboya, men need to be involved. They need
Speaker 2: to understand the dangers of HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases. Together,
Speaker 2: they will need to make fishing safer and they must
Speaker 2: learn that sex for phish is not a fair exchange.
Speaker 2: But no sex for fish does give hope. It shows
Speaker 2: how life can be different for future generations.
Speaker 1: What are some of the other problems of living in poverty?
Speaker 1: Are there ways that you know to help? What are they?
Speaker 1: You can leave a comment on our website or email
Speaker 1: us at Radio at Radio English dot net. You can
Speaker 1: also comment on Facebook at Facebook dot com, slash Spotlight Radio.
Speaker 2: The writer and producer of this program was Dan Chrisman.
Speaker 2: The voices you heard were from the United Kingdom and
Speaker 2: the United States. All quotes were adapted for this program
Speaker 2: and voiced by Spotlight. You can listen to this program
Speaker 2: again and read it on the internet at ww dot
Speaker 2: Radio English dot net. This program is called No Sex
Speaker 2: for Fish.
Speaker 1: You can also get our programs delivered directly to your
Speaker 1: Android or Apple device through our free official Spotlight English app.
Speaker 1: We hope you can join us again for the next
Speaker 1: Spotlight program. Goodbye,