DRC: Bravado

Picture this: three 12 year old girls; exuding confidence and full of energy; standing on the street late at night trying to solicit business; collecting free condoms distributed by an NGO; wearing short skirts, tight t-shirts and traditional decorative headwear; periodically gyrating their hips provocatively; using sexually explicit and crude language; quarrelling and hitting out at the boys on the street. The image is arresting. There is so much wrong about it, so many apparent contradictions – vulnerable yet resilient, feminine yet masculine, child yet adult.

To survive on the street a 12 year old girl has to display bravado. Rationally, everything should shout “I am vulnerable” – she is a 12 year living along on the street, whose choices and protection were so limited she has resorted to selling her body to survive. But she has adopted behaviours that try to counter this, to convey an alternative reality, to deter the abusers and exploiters. A coping strategy that enables her to protect herself as best she can.

The following evening I told Francine about these girls and asked her for her opinion. “That saddens me. She is too young to have sex. Her body is not ready. She will get health problems, she might even become infertile.” What could help change the course of their lives? “It’s too late to do anything now. They are already earning money. They are already used to the freedom. Letting go of this is too hard”.