Families played football with their children at Adam Smith Square, Woodbrook. The night filled with their laughter as the children ran after the football. The smell of gyros, burgers and fries filled the air. Couples held hands and passed by the food stalls as they walked aimlessly down the avenue. amery Meanwhile, a short distance away, at Cornelio Street, women, minors and men came out to “work.” One of the regular “girls,” in a short black dress, looked avidly at the silver half-tone truck that passed and slowed down.
“I start when I was 14,” she said. “A friend bring me here.” She stopped and ran to the van, but returned: “He going and come back, because he have no money to pay for the room. “The most money I make one night is $2,000, and the least amount I ever made is $600 a night. “I don’t know about you,” she looked at the other woman. “Some (customers) come because they want a threesome.” The woman, who gave her name as Shirley, said she is only afraid of “psychos.”
“That’s why I does pick and choose and use protection. Every six months I go CNC (Queen’s Park Counselling Centre) for testing.” Shirley said there were teenagers, minors in the same business: “Some down on Brian Lara Promenade really...in front of the restaurants and on the bench. You must know them,” she said. Cars slowed down to a crawl and drivers peeped out. One man was speaking softly to a woman sitting in the passenger seat of his vehicle as she sipped beer.
Two women stood at the corner of Cornelio and Roberts Streets. One wore a mauve dress that barely reached her hips, while the other had on a T-shirt and shorts. One of the women, known as Candice, complained that the teenagers caused trouble.
“I know who you talking about. They do not work with us. They come here for the money and to steal..One of the girls, who was younger than 16, she asked me for a cigarette, but I did not have any. She came back in a car and started to pelt bottles at me. So I don’t really mix. Cause I tell you I don’t have a cigarette you jump in a car and pelt bottle behind me? That’s not called for,” she said. Candice complained that the teenagers also robbed pedestrians and anyone in the area.
“They does come round here and go with the men and touch people thing and they making business look bad for we. “It is a bunch of them. Sometimes they go and get some fellow and come back,” she said. The other girl added: “Is them?” “Yes, is them. All of them is minors! Them not big woman. They looking like 15 or 16.” She called their names and said she made it her business “to check up on them. They hang out on Independence Square.”
A police officer in a car then stopped and called out to one of the women. “He is a police. He does pass here. Them don’t want nothing but sex. They don’t want any money, just sex,” she said. Those who live and work in the area, Woodbrook residents and Port-of-Spain street vendors, both agreed there had been an increase in child prostitution.
Residents (who refused to be named) said the minors were sometimes accompanied by a parent who encouraged these transactions. In an interview, someone who lives at Ariapita Avenue said, “It have a mother who comes out with her two daughters and pimps them. They are children and they doing anything. Sometimes she letting them do a raffle.”
“The children are 12 and under,” she claimed. “All around 11 o’clock they does be out on the avenue and asking people for things. They does be moving around. She have them doing everything…
“Last night she send the girl to me for some money. I ask them where they mother is, because it was around 11 o’clock. I tell her that is illegal. “I was feeling bad too because is a little child and she might have school in the morning and should be sleeping,” he said. Another resident said he is fed up with the mother’s treatment of her children.
“We have to find some way to stop them. Either somebody should take them away from her or something. Sometimes they might say yes, if it is help they need—and start back. That have to stop,” he said. The resident said some of the prostitutes, even teens, “work” at nearby bars. “They coming in the bar and sitting down early now. They all over the area, even in the casino. Some of them is young children and they going to school. I know them. This is what we reach to?”
On Independence Square and Broadway, vendors complained about the children. One of the vendors who sold snacks and food said, “They does be here every evening and they selling their bodies right there. “We know who they are and where they hang out,” she said, pointing to the front of a fast-food outlet.
Dr Amery Browne, former technical co-ordinator of the National Aids Co-ordinating Committee (NACC), says there has been an increase of sexually transmitted diseases in teenagers. “Our nation is experiencing an increasing epidemic of sexual abuse against children,” he agreed. “This is rooted in a culture of materialism, neglect, hostility, disrespect, greed, impatience, low or dysfunctional self-esteem, rabid self-gratification, and an absence of standards and values,” he said.
Browne said the implications for the next generation were horrific, and T&T would continue to pay a high price in terms of sexually transmitted infections, poor interpersonal relations, violence, early pregnancies, backyard abortions, and an ongoing cycle of abuse. The results were far more than only physical, he warned.
“Each affected child is challenged by potential impairment of intellectual, cognitive, emotional, behavioural, psychological and physical development, as well as severe health consequences. “As a physician I am concerned about the high incidence of genital warts, syphilis, HIV, and inflammatory STIs in the under-18 age group, as well as the increasing trauma and tension in the society as a whole. The situation is not improved by some leaders at all levels of society who prey on children and generally set a terrible example.”
RED Initiatives founder O’Leo Lokai said there are more than 24,000 people living in T&T with HIV or the Aids virus. RED Initiatives advocates for access to universal healthcare. “The infection rate is always highest in a younger population between the ages of 15 to 24. The high-risk group is between 15 to 35. But Lokai said four people a day test HIV-positive, according to data received from various regional health authorities and the Ministry of Health.
“It is very hard to say and our data depends on people accessing services,” he added, however. “There are a lot of cases that go unreported or some who don’t go for testing. It is around 24,000, from the reported cases, but...we have to increase that by 50 per cent because there are cases not reported.”
He put this down to “ a lack of proper sex education, lack of access to services. if a child is under 16, a young person can’t access an HIV test by himself. They will have to go with a parent or guardian. They could be infected because they don’t want their parents to know. They get ‘education’ through their peers. Lokai said his group knew of cases of commercial sex in schools after students give in to peer pressure.
“They have to resort to certain activities, whether it is on the streets or schools. It could be [caused by] lack of support and economic support.”