Moonlight Stars
A project by RHU

I was born in a village and came to Kampala as a baby; I then spent most of my life in Ki-Mombasa. My mother chose to move to Kampala after my father found a new wife and they separated. When I was 3, my father passed away and I never really got to know him. I was living with my mom, my sister, and my two brothers.

 

Growing up, my mother used to sell wine out of our house, with that money she paid for me to go to school until I was about 11. Around that time, the money ran out and she told me to take a break from school and stay at home with her for a year. I then went back to school, but had to stop again a few grades later and wait. By then, I was a little older and I started working with my mom. My brothers didn’t go to school either and my sister had stopped going by that point too. I got a little extra care because I was the youngest when my father died, and never really enjoyed having two parents.

One day my mother was sleeping and I stayed alone selling the wine. A man came, he saw I was alone and he raped me right there in the house while my mother slept. I felt ashamed and thought I had done something wrong, so I didn’t tell my mother what had happened. After some time I realized I was pregnant, when I started showing my mother asked me about it, but I was too afraid to talk. She sent me away.

 

I was alone and had started staying with a friend who was a Moonlight Star, to make ends meet I began working at it as well. It was hard at first, I would have 5 clients a day and it was very hard for me to take both physically and emotionally. Today of course, I have more than 5 men every day, and I am used to it.

 

After some time my mother asked me to come back to the house, she asked me where the father of my child was, and eventually I told her I was raped. Sometimes when she looks at my daughter she starts to cry. The truth is, this work we do, it’s hard for me to call it a job, we are so vulnerable and we don’t have many choices.

 

My daughter is now 8 years old, she is a healthy girl, growing up very well, but sometimes I’m scared for her, I can see her becoming a moonlight star in the future and I don’t want that to happen. I ask her sometimes what she wants to be when she grows up, and she says a doctor or a teacher. I say ok, I will look for money so you can reach your dreams, but you can’t be lazy, study hard.

 

My 2nd pregnancy was a product of a relationship I had with a nice, educated man, who did not know what I do. We liked each other a lot, I moved in with him, and had the baby happily, but eventually he found out I was a moonlight star, and he couldn’t handle it, he told me to leave. His family wanted to take the child but I refused, they told me I had to choose all or nothing, either I give the child up and they support him, or they don’t give me anything. I chose to keep the child, and though his family doesn’t help, the father still cares and pays for some things we need.

 

A few years ago someone decided to give me a chance. A European man came to the neighborhood, we met and he discovered I was his daughters name sake. He decided to invest in me, he paid for me to continue school, though it was hard I passed and I graduated University with a teaching degree last year. Though I have my degree, finding work in this position is difficult, there was even a school that accepted me and I was ready to begin, but they heard I was a sex worker and withdrew their offer.

I have a dream to use the skills and knowledge I acquired to help my community. There are many young fatherless children here in Ki-Mombasa; I hope one day I can get funds to open a learning center for these children. Some of them just wander around during the day, but this way they can stay with me, I will teach them and their mothers won’t have to worry about their safety or expensive school fees.

 

Thanks to RHU I am respected in my community, becoming a peer educator meant that people saw me differently. When I walk in the street people call out doctor! The work we are doing changes people’s lives and changes the way they see sickness. In the past, when people got STDs or STIs they were ashamed and they would keep it to themselves but today they reach out and get help.