CHILDREN living on the streets of Harare last week acknowledged having sexual relationships with sugar daddies and sugar mummies from mainstream society.
Report by Moses Chibaya
In separate interviews with Standardcommunity on Friday, the children said in most cases, the sugar daddies and mummies took them to their homes during the night for sex sessions. A 17-year-old boy, Spencer, who usually operates from OK Union in Harare, said he had engaged in sexual intercourse with several sugar mummies. “I have gone several times with some of them. When she picks you up, she goes with you to her house. The first thing she does is to instruct you to bath. If you need food you are given,” said Spencer. “We are also given money. The amount of money differs; at times you get US$50 or US$100 or more. Some of them even buy us cellphones for communication purposes.” But what worries Spencer is that most of the sugar mummies demand unprotected sex. “At times, we do not have an option because there will be no condoms,” he said. “They (condoms) must be given for free. You see that guy (pointing at his colleague), he is now sick because of having unprotected sex,” he said. Chipo Phiri (14), another street kid, also confirmed that she had had sex not only with other street children, but with several elderly men. “Sugar daddies come and pick us here with my friends and they give us money. Some of them buy us clothes. The major challenge is that some of them demand unprotected sex and at times oral sex,” she said. Phiri said she used some of the money to take care of her siblings who also live on the streets, as well as to buy food and clothes for herself. “I was raped several times by fellow street children. We have tried to report our cases to the police but they tell us to go back to our homes. Both my parents are dead so l do not have anywhere to go.” She added: “I was diagnosed with tuberculosis two times now. I am afraid of going to the New Start Centre for HIV testing.”
Sugar mummies come at night
Another street kid, who said his name was Amos, said most sugar mummies were reluctant to talk or interact with them during the day but would phone them once it was dark. “They pretend as if they don’t know us during the day,” he said. “But once it is dark, especially on Fridays when they are coming from beer drinking parties, that is when they want us and are most generous,” he said.
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