Nigeria has the third highest HIV caseload in the world after India and South Africa–but opportunity trumps risk for some young women in neighboring Benin, who are studying English to give them an edge in the Nigerian sex industry. “Basically,” says a student at a language school in Benin, “it’s English for sex.”
An report on sex workers in Nigeria by IRIN, a news agency funded by the United Nations, gives voice to these women. “Amy, a young sex worker near one of the big hotels in the city, came from Ivory Coast in 2007. She said she made enough money to rent an apartment for US$400 a month in a suburb of Abuja.”
“The world has changed,” she says, “we need to get moving and we need to meet others. What is true for business is also true for other areas. Why should we think that sex is not affected by this? We need to find ways to adapt ourselves.”
Source: IRIN
