Monrovia β Angel Hawkins has spent 11 years working as a sex worker in one of Liberia's slum communities noted for harboring teenage prostitutes, drug users and thieves, and armed robbers. She's a mother of four, all by different fathers. Sex for money became her best option as a means of survival when she dropped out of school, she explained. FrontPageAfrica visited Angel at her zinc shack residence located in a ghetto near Paynesville City, outside Monrovia. I thought it would be easier to find somewhere to stay and get a peace of mind than it was with my step mother in Sinkor.
Angel explained that when she left her step-mother's house, she struggled to find a living place of her own. According to her, meeting the dealer who she refused to name was a life-changing moment for her. I said no. But Angel was no stranger to drugs. She told FrontPageAfrica that it was drugs that got her into the streets. However, according to her, the dealer took advantage of her destituteness and made her an offer. He said: "I can help you make some money. Let's go round the ghetto and offer a deal: you give them blowjob, and I sell them some coke.
This was a deal she agreed to after she was intoxicated by him, she said. She said it was in that ghetto another man offered her somewhere to sleep - a place that did not belong to him, rather his friend.
This, according to her, was how she landed in the midst of prostitutes. The place was an area where men often went to find prostitutes. Fortunately, he was super-easy; he just wanted to look at me and touch me a little bit.
He was really friendly and seemed a bit embarrassed about being there," she said. According to her, at the onset, she wasn't preferred by many clients, as she still hadn't bought herself a 'sexy outfit', underwear and high heels like the other girls.
