SWAZIS RESORTED TO SEX WORK - STUDY

EZULWINI – As the drought intensified last year, Swazis resorted to sex work as means of survival.

The startling revelation headlines a report of a study conducted by SEPARC on the Socio-economic impacts of the 2015/2016 El Nino Induced Drought in Swaziland.

SEPARC is the Swaziland Economic Policy Analysis and Research Centre.
The report points to the El Nino induced drought as having been the main catalyst for a massive social disintegration.
 In some families, the situation forced parents to leave their children alone in search for jobs to sustain their households.
Besides the impact on the children, the study shows that it was not as the parents envisaged as there were reported increases in the number of rapes and attempted rapes in the families.

Over 1 000 cases of rape were reported in 2015, according to the police.
There was also a significant rise in key populations around the Mbabane and Manzini corridors.
The report shows that the drought affected rural households more than urban households.

Households according to the report suffered severe food shortages as they were not able to get any harvest from the fields. Their livestock died in large numbers resulting in food scarcity.

“A large number of households had to seek financial assistance from their friends and families in urban areas just to buy food,” reads part of the report. The study also found out that a substantial number of households also had to resort to extreme coping strategies such as reducing their meals per day, while others turned to less preferred and less nutritious cheap food.

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