Now, I work in a stall on the side of a road in Kampala, frying chips and selling cold drinks. In bars, you are often expected to have sex with the boss before you get the job and made to sleep with customers to keep it. Then you have to beg your boss to let you keep your job, because there are no other jobs. You are working full-time but you are paid as if you are working part-time. And the jobs we do have, the employers for those only hire girls they consider to be good-looking β so you have to be beautiful enough to compete with others.
I started experiencing harassment when I was around 13, working as a hawker selling maize and was harassed all the time on different levels. Are you going to slaughter her? Even now I have my own stall, I still get harassed. One of my friends was in a similar situation and decided to go into prostitution because men treated her like a sex object anyway. One day, she was arrested and her face ended up in the newspapers.
She was bailed out of jail, but she was completely humiliated. Treating us this way makes us feel like we have no value other than sex, and it makes me feel small and vulnerable.
Harassment is a big problem in Kampala, so together we work to make the city a safer place for us β for instance, by working with authorities to install street lights. Now, the Ugandan Government has agreed to launch a consultation on the sexual exploitation of girls and young women at work. I want to see the day when no girl or woman is exploited in Uganda, where they have the same rights as boys and men.
And finally, I want boys and men to put themselves in our position. Would they treat their sisters, mothers, and wives like this? World leaders need to wake up. With one signature, they and you can help these girls feel empowered. If you stand with me today, then tomorrow I will stand for the rest β and together we can change lives.
