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How I was lured into prostitution at university
What you need to know:
It has been said that university students, especially females from Makerere University, use their bodies to acquire and maintain posh lifestyles. Jennifer Apio, 25, says she was one of such girls and she shares her story with Amos Ngwomoya.
My name is Jennifer Apio. I was born in 1988 to a secondary school teacher and a peasant mother in Mwelo village, Tororo District, eastern Uganda. I was the second of seven children. My father was a polygamous man who had four wives, and each wife bore him at least three children. My mother was a peasant who worked hard for us since she never wanted to be considered a failure by her co-wives. When we were old enough to understand, our mother repeatedly told us education would be the only sure way to escape poverty.
My father, being a polygamous man, was never home enough. He always told us he was busy, there was no fatherly love in our home. He was a secondary school teacher whose meagre salary was divided among his families so it was never enough. Besides, he was a drunkard. He sent Shs10,000 to my mother for our food and only reappeared home when his salary was spent. It was always mother who struggled to provide our school dues from selling her crops. My elder brother, who had survived on odd jobs to afford school, gave up studies after Senior Four due to lack of support.
Life at school
I skipped school at least twice a week to work in the gardens with mother for my school fees. My father did not help at all, and it made me feel bad that I always had to bother mother.
My friends led comfortable lives because some of them were from good families. This left me feeling like a failure. However, I chose and tried for the longest time to focus on my studies. I struggled to stay in school, with my mother being my only hope and motivation.
Bad luck
“It never rains but it pours,” goes the saying and this is what befell me during my Senior Six vacation in 2011. My mother passed on after a snake bite and with her went all my hope of making it through school. This was my first turning point in life. None of our step mothers offered to help any of us. It was my elder brother who instead came back home with his family to start taking care of us. I had completed secondary school and had been looking forward to joining university but all that lay in limbo after mother died.
As luck would have it, the clan members intervened and made father swear to take me up and see to it that I finished school, which he promised to do. I did not entirely believe he would, so I continued to do odd jobs in hotels as a cleaner and at times in people’s shambas. I had saved Shs150,000 by the end of my vacation. At the back of my mind, I worried about what would become of my siblings. I submitted all this to God.
Joining university
Joining campus is every one’s dream while in high school. Personally, I had applied to Makerere University for Information Technology course but my dream failed when my father told me that I would go to an institution. I settled for a diploma in Business administration. I joined Multitech Business School and got a rental around Chez Johnson Hotel.
The day I came to join university was my first time in Kampala. When I set off from home, my father gave me tuition, rent and Shs50,000 for food. He told me to improvise for upkeep because he had many responsibilities to fulfill. With the Shs150,000 I had saved, I was sent off with an extra Shs200,000 for pocket money. Of course, after I had shopped for some basic needs, there was little of that left.
Temptations start
At higher institutions of learning, there is every sort of merry-making. With minimum supervision, life is determined by students themselves. Besides, all students are not from the same families. There are those who come from posh families and those from disadvantaged families, among whom I belonged. I used to admire girls being driven to and from school. They would go out with their boyfriends. On their return in the morning, they would discuss what happens in different places like at Wandegeya’s famous Chicken Tonight, Steak Out, Angenoir and several other places. Of course, I respected them thinking they were genuinely happy since they were from rich families.
Meanwhile, my father every once in a while sent me about Shs20,000. It was this money I relied on for handouts, course works, breakfast, lunch, supper and everything else. Life became really challenging. All the family members who pledged to help me through school could not even pick my calls. None of my step mothers helped either. In a bid to get some support, I dated a man who owned boutiques in Wandegeya and Nakulabye. I thought he would be my partner but he only disappointed me. I realised that he only wanted to fulfill his needs and later dump me. I dated different men, all working class, but I always ended up hurt. Most of them were mean cheating irresponsible liars. Life was hard, but some times my friends helped with food and money some times. However, they offered to show me how to make my own money, inviting me to go along with them.
Becoming a prostitute
One evening, some of my friends invited me to their room. In their room, you would wonder whether they worked because they seemed to have everything; flat screens, woollen carpets, double beds and much more. Being in their room made me feel unworthy and out of place because of my low social status.
But they assured me that they could show me how to get such things too. Like a bride waiting for a ceremony the next morning, they applied some make-up before dressing up in tight or short clothes and pants. They sprayed themselves with perfumes, made us some milk and by 8pm, we were off to earn some real money, I was told. We went through Makerere University to Wandegeya. When we reached the streets, they quickly placed themselves at different corners and started calling customers ( men).They invited me to join them but I was shy.
They were later joined by their friends and men were queuing to negotiate, before leaving in pairs to some rooms nearby for some time depending on the money one had paid. It was so scary and I was shocked. However, they made money and on a lucky night, one would go with at least Shs50,000. This persuaded me to join them and besides, I really needed the money. We started going together every night after that.
On my first night, I slept with four men and I made Shs30,000. My friends trained me to bargain for good money. When Wandegeya bored us, we would go to Bwaise or Kisenyi. Soon, I began to enjoy the business. During holidays, I did not go home because I preferred to stay and make money.
One night, a tall bellied man approached me and told me to go and spend the whole night with him. It seemed like a good deal since he promised to pay me Shs100,000 but when I awoke he had left. He had not even paid for the lodge! It was my friends who came and bailed me out the next morning as I had not carried money with me.
Meanwhile, my academic performance deteriorated because I busy “working”.
I was at school during the day and at “work” at night. I later realised that my life was at stake. I did not go home any more. I deceived my elder brother that I was staying with a friend in Nakulabye whose parents were Christians and he believed me.
Turning point
I worked as a prostitute for about a year before I decided to stop. Unfortunately, I tested HIV positive before I stopped so it was a little too late for me. I was shocked and did not know how I was going to cope. Life became even harder. I quickly started ARVS from Taso.
During my last year, I thought about how I had made the wrong decisions. I had taken a wrong path that I will live to regret for the rest of my life. Although I completed my studies, I feel useless because I’m now in the world of the dead.
I have been staying with my cousin who is a student at Makerere University. I have been working at a sports betting centre in Nakulabye but I recently quit to try and find a job that pays more than the Shs150,000 I was being paid. I eventually opened up to one of my aunts, who in turn told my father that I had contracted HIV.
I shall forever regret my chioices but I cannot help but wonder how things would have turned out if my father had been more supportive. All I can say now is that it is only God who knows my fate.
