Moonlight Stars
A project by RHU

I was born in a Ugandan village, where I lived with my parents, my brothers and my sisters. My father didn’t have work, and my mother would find odd jobs here and there so she could feed us and pay our school fees. We had a small plot in the village where we lived, it wasn’t much but we made do.

When I was 13 my mother died, and that was a major turning point in my life. Without the money she brought in I could not continue school and my education stopped. My father sold our plot and rented a small house for us, but money ran out and we were thrown out of there. That is when I decided to move to Kampala and try to provide for me and my younger sister. I left her with a neighbor in the village and began working as a house-girl in Kampala.

 

For three years I worked as a house-girl and lived at my aunt’s house. I always felt like a burden to her, like she didn’t really want me around. Finally I moved out, I rented a place with my friend, and started working at a bar as a waitress. A short time after beginning my work there I became pregnant.  The father of the child denied it, and I knew I couldn’t afford everything I needed with my small salary as a waitress. I could not keep living with my friend and needed my own house where I could care for the baby. That is how during my first pregnancy I began working as a Moonlight Star. I never went back to waitressing and became a moonlight star full time. One day a policeman came, he forced me to have sex with him without protection, and he threatened me by saying he would take me to prison if I speak out or try to find him again. As a result I became pregnant again.

 

I always try to be safe, and I use condoms when I work, but sometimes men will come and will offer to pay you a much larger sum of money to not use a condom. I usually refuse but there was one time when I was very pressed for money and I agreed. My third pregnancy followed.  So now I have three kids, a two-year old, a six-year old and a 15-year old. I send my two older ones to boarding school, and my sister, too. I pay for half of their school fees and RHU helps me with the other half.

 

I got to know RHU around 2008. They gave us skills workshops and taught us how to be peer educators. They also told us how we can handle our clients better, how to be assertive with them when it comes to condoms without being rude or abrasive.I’m very happy I got a chance to be a peer educator. I go out to the community and help people, explain about reproductive health, and direct them to the clinic for counselling and services. People don’t call me by my name anymore they call me “Counselor.” They know I have an important role in the community, and so do I.

 

I dream of one day opening my own shop. Today, in addition to being a moonlight star I prepare food for schools but it’s not enough to live on. I hope one day I can make my living through this business, and that way I can build my own house and be free.