Kath, caught in the red light

With an air of tentative confidence, she walked and hesitatingly sat on a low stool, crossed her legs as the occasional strobe of light illuminates a pretty be-dimpled young face, and a raisin-sized mole in her cheek.

Amidst the din, dim and pulsating music from a videoke, she introduced herself.

“Hello, I am Kath, this is my second night here,” she said, barely twenty, small frail woman whose years in life would place her at about much older age.

Born third among five siblings of a farming family in far-away Cagayan Valley, Kath, unconsciously peeled the mask that she disguised herself, while being forced by circumstances to work in the red light entertainment.

“I was a working student, Grade 12,” she haltingly recalls, “my parents could not afford sending me to school, with my younger siblings also in school.”

She was a Grade 12 completer as a working student, but the way her eyes told it, it forcibly undressed a dark past that she obviously did not want to share.

Coming from a poor family who can barely provide food on their table, Kath, or whoever her real name is, said, I dreamed of going to college and the only way to do that is to leave home, even if it is a life of uncertainty.

“I arrived in Manila after two days of travel by bus, and immediately looked for work that can get me a few spare money for college,” she said

Somewhere between jobs in Manila as sales clerk, merchandizer and other odd jobs to save for school, she met another girl who convinced her that there is work in the entertainment industry.

“I know a few songs, and I can dance, they seem to be the easiest way to a job here,” she admitted.

A girl who instinctively knows her notes and has the moves she developed in high school, she began a new chapter in her life. In the entertainment industry.

Midway into her fourth tequila, and after being all too cautious to reveal it all, she shared a story that befall several other women who are working students of her age.

“I do not know much, this is still my second night,” she said as a matter of fact, which nervously cracking her fingers.

But, few more shots, and she detailed the machinations of working in an adult club: from sitting with noble or drunk men, of getting invited as escort, and of going all out.

She also admitted high school did not elaborate on the risks of Human Immuno Virus (HIV) and the possibility of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS).

“No,” she said, when asked about any idea on HIV and AIDS.

When it can be treated as an intrusion to her personal life, she took the question like it was simply a grade 12 matter she missed.

Working in the industry in the day the whole country lights candles for AIDS victims, and without a decent idea of how HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases can ruin her life, is already an alarming situation.

There, we talked and she asked questions that even concerns most of us who know a little about HIV and AIDS even more.

“So, by using condom, I can get a protection from contagious and other sexually transmitted diseases?” She innocently asked.

In an industry that mandates escorts to always get protection, she confesses: “I do not like to work with condoms. “

In an hour, amidst the din of throbbing music, videoke, and tequila shots, she has changed her lines:” You can not find me in Facebook, if you look for Kath,” embarrassed that she now has a different name.

Now, asked what she would do with the new information she learned, she has these:

“I will not go out with men where I have no control of the situation, because not only I be in a risky situation, I can be killed.”

And then she said, with some luck, she will proceed to college and take up nursing.

“Next year,” she said, “next year.”

CARE FACILITIES

For people like Kath, who are now trapped by circumstance in their chosen industry, “a visit to the DOH recognized HIV and AIDS Treatment hub would bid well,” says Governor Celestino Gallares Memorial Medical Center (GCGMMC) Piskay Clinic HIV AIDS case manager Gerald Rento Camartin.

Piskay Clinic is GCGMMC HIV treatment hub now relocated at the back of hospital to provide more privacy to anyone who intends to access the facility’s services.

HIV is a virus that attacks the body's immune system and AIDS occurs at the most advanced stage of infection when the HIV targets the body's white blood cells, weakening the immune system, enough for other opportunistic infections to take over, Camartin explained.

HIV, which can be transmitted by unprotected penetrative sex, vertical transmission or mother to child upon birth and ingestion of infected mother’s milk and the sharing of contaminated needles, “has become alarming here in Bohol when from January to March this year, Bohol records 17 new HIV cases from male to male sexual intercourse alone,” shares medical technologist at the Provincial Health Office (PHO) Crisanta Estomago.

Both GCGMMC and the PHO run HIV programs which include HIV Awareness campaigns to schools communities and groups, free HIV Screening after pre and post-screening counseling and pre-exposure prophylaxis services.

Both also provide off-hours services for those who intend to know HIV and AIDS, counseling sessions and anti-retrovirals for those who test positive for HIV after confirmatory laboratory tests, adds GCGMMC medical technologist Ma. Alda Ligason.

While GCGMMC is the only treatment facility that performs confirmatory test results in the screening by facilities here, both also hand out protection commodities and anti-retroviral treatments.

Both also keep community-based networks of volunteers and advocates who can be contacted during the facility’s off hours.

Born out of the need to protect the victims from stigma and discrimination, these volunteers, including the soon to open Bohol Sundown Clinic would be available from 5:00 PM to 8:00 AM, or when the standard HIV facilities are off business. (RAHC/PIA-7/BOHOL)

BARRED. Kath, or whoever her real name is, has been a victim of a cruel system that has kept her and many innocent young girls into the industry to escape from poverty, unknowingly feeding them to more serious complications. (PIABohol/IMB contributedphoto)

HIV-AIDS AWARENESS. Health care workers all agree that if a widespread education and awareness campaign about HIV and AIDS is incorporated in the high school curriculum, things could turn better. Bohol is now alarmed of the skyrocketing cases of HIV and AIDS, mostly from unprotected penetrative sex. (PIABohol)