Prostitutes of the region of Lori are mainly socially unprotected women. Hayarpi Edilyan, the director of the Lori affiliate of the Hope and Help NGO, said about this during a conversation with www.aravot.am.
The organization has been in Vanadzor for 8 years and has been informing women in Spitak providing sexual services for money about sexual diseases for one year. “Prostitutes are mainly socially unprotected people, they had husbands, they are divorced, their husbands have left the country to work abroad and haven’t returned leaving the family unattended,” H. Edilyan says. She says that girls and women take that step mostly when the extremely poor condition and the problem of living leave them with no other choice. “The financial problem is the essential one for prostitutes, we underwent an earthquake, a war, an emigration, people became vulnerable, they needed to earn their living,” Edilyan says.
Since the organization is not able to improve the social conditions of more than 450 stakeholders, it makes efforts to prevent HIV/AIDS among these people. “When we would try to convince them during conversations with them not to take that step, they would say, ‘Give me 5000 AMD a day or find a job for me so that I can earn money and I will not do that.’ And since we cannot provide them with that, therefore, we have taken the path of prevention, in order that they come, get condoms, information about the possible ways of spreading viruses. And all that anonymously.”
Although not all social groups accept this work style of the organization, Hayarpi Edilyan explains that this step aims not only at preserving prostitutes’ health, but also at reducing the spread of viruses in the society, “Regardless of the accusations made by people against us, we try to explain that it is for the overall healthiness of the population, because even though they severely criticize, they, nonetheless, use the services they provide. If there is no demand, their supply will be purposeless. Thus, if we can explain to the prostitute how she can protect herself against sexual diseases, the customer will also be protected, thus contributing to the society’s healthiness.”
Hayarpi Edilyan asserts that very often the mixed attitude and intolerance of the society also contribute to a “fallen” woman’s not being able to get out, “Our town is small, everyone knows quite well who does what, they know who is a prostitute and who is not and if that prostitute tries to find a job somewhere else, even as a maid, they are not perceived as normal people, they are not employed. The prostitute, as a person, as a category, doesn’t exist; she is at the lowest level in the eyes of our population.”
Anush BULGHADARYAN
