"FOR MY FUTURE"

For Ugandan Girls, Delaying Sex Has Economic Cost (MARC LACEY, August 18, 2003, NY Times)

A dedicated student who dreams of going to college, Lillian struggles to come up with the fees that all secondary school students in Uganda are required to pay. For Lillian - who, like some of her other classmates agreed to be interviewed on the condition that her last name not be used - the tuition comes to about $30 a month. Recently, some of the cousins with whom she has been living since her uncle's death have begun pressuring her to raise money by selling herself.

"They say, `Why don't you find a sponsor?' " she said, dressed in her dark blue school uniform and looking very young. "I know what they mean. They want me to do what so many girls do and get a sugar daddy. You give him what he wants, and he gives you what you want." [...]

At first she rejected outright suggestions by her cousins that she find a man to solve her financial woes. But the more she talked about it, the more her resolve seemed to weaken.

If she did have sex, she said, it would not be about love, because marriage would end her education.

And she would try to remember everything the club had taught her. She would use a condom and hope that the man would be kind. "If it was a single man who wasn't married, if he had good character, maybe I'd consider it," she said. "It would be for my future."

We're all at risk, right? Posted by Orrin Judd at August 19, 2003 6:04 PM