Berlin, Germany July 20, 2009

ONE DOLLAR AGAINST TEENAGE PREGNANCY IN AFRICA

In response to the high rate of teenage pregnancy in Africa, the African Professional Sex Work Union® APSWU has initiated a permanent project called “Campaign Against Teenage Pregnancy in Africa, CATPA” and calls on all those who care about the well being of the African Child to support this campaign with at least one dollar.

The caption “one dollar” is borrowed from the famous “less-than-a-dollar-a-day” classification of vulnerable members of society.

Many teenagers are getting pregnant not out of promiscuity but because of peer pressure, lack of information on safe sex, ignorance on contraception, lure of sex tourism, pimpism, rape and other forms of violence. The stigma associated with teenage pregnancy can be more damaging to a girl than the stigma of HIV/AIDS.  The impregnated girls are often rejected by her families and peer groups. This rejection leads to other problems like school drop-out or interrupted education; vulnerability to or participation in criminal activity; abortion; social ostracism; child neglect and abandonment; school adjustment difficulties for their children; rape, abuse, and incest; adoption; lack of social security; poverty; repeat pregnancies before age 20; and negative effects on domestic life.

Target Groups

The target groups of this campaign are adolescents attending schools, parents, housemaids who risk being sexually abused by their employers, street children who risk being abused by criminals, gangsters, ritualists and paedophile sex tourists and, village girls who risk being lured into the cities by human traffickers and modern slave traders. Women of other age groups who are faced with the troubles of unwanted or risky pregnancies will also been helped.

Scope of Activities

The“Campaign Against Teenage Pregnancy in Africa, CATPA” faces the problems heads on by helping addressing the causes and consequence of teenage pregnancies. The scope of the campaign focuses on prevention and rehabilitation.

The prevention activities include:

·         Opening of  field offices of the African Sexuality Academy® (ASA) to provide in-community counselling, research and documentation.

·         Translation of literature on sexual and reproductive health into various local languages

·         Production and distribution of literature and audio-visual programmes on sexual and reproductive health and safer sex in all places frequented by sexually active youths

·         Supporting the anti-trafficking authorities in the fight against human trafficking, sex slavery and paedophile sex tourism

·         Provision of scholarship to deserving girls who risk being forced into prostitution to pay for food, shelter and school expenses.

·         Engaging celebrities as goodwill Ambassadors of the Campaign

·         Supporting mobile cinema and theatre groups in grass-root awareness work in communities, entertainment hotspots, tourist centres, schools and all other concerned locations

·         Launching an interactive internet and mobile portal with all relevant information for the young people who have access to the internet and mobile handsets.

·         Organising benefit concerts, radio and TV show and other public events

The rehabilitation aspect of the campaign involves the:

·         Creation of safe home for impregnated girls who are abandoned by their families and peers

·         Motivation of victims with the narrations of the inspirational stories of prominent Africans who succeeded in life despite getting pregnant or impregnating somebody during their teen years.

·         Donation of materials to maternal centres that work on Vesico-Vaginal Fistulae (VVF) , maternal mortality and infant morality and baby dumping

·         Scholarship and skills training programmes

·         Reconciliation between the ostracised girls and their parents as well as the fathers of their babies (rebuilding of family sanctity)

·         Sponsoring the weddings of impregnated girls and the fathers of their children if they choose to marry.

Target Communities

Though the campaign will rich out to African communities on the Content and in the Diaspora, it is for now starting with target group in these areas: Nigeria, Ghana, South Africa, Angola, Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Botswana, Haiti, Salvador (Bahia, Brazil), Harlem, (New York), South London and Matonge (Brussels, Belgium). More places will be added as the campaign grows.

Your One Dollar Makes a Big Difference

The 12,000 members of African Professional Sex Work Union® APSWU have agreed to contribute 5% percent their assignment fees towards the initial costs of the campaign. They will also be dedicating their holidays on the fields execution alongside the paid staff and other volunteers of the campaign as part of their strong sense for community service. How ever, the sustainably of the project can also be nurtured with the moral and material support of all human beings who believe this Campaign Against Teenage Pregnancy in Africa makes sense. The One Dollar you donate into the given bank account can make a big difference.  For details contact Mr. Alfred Moi, Email: f.moi2002@africanpswu.org, Tel.: 0049(0)1774842957, http://www.africanpswu.org/9.html

About APSWU

The African Professional Sex Work Union® APSWU was founded in 2002 by African expatriates in Berlin who decided to use the 2002 German Law that legalise sex work to promote the rights and welfare of Africans in and our of Africa who sees sex work as a normal profession like Accountancy, Business or Carpentry (ABC) .

APSWU is a sexuality service provision agency and a lobby group for the decriminalisation of sex works as well as the salvation of vulnerable girls and boys from the traps human traffickers and criminals. APSWU believes the continuous criminalisation and stigmatisation of sex works by African Government is a stimulus package for criminals engaged in human trafficking and sex slavery.

As a professional body APSUW serves as platform for those who want to practice the sex trade out of their free choice across Africa and those who want to consume their sexual services. APSWU promotes sexual wellness and insist on safe sex. Members of APSWU undergo regular medical check-up and continued assessment of their quality. They do not engage in street prostitution and they do not operate from brothels.

The members of APSWU are normal people who are motivated by:

·         The desire to enjoy their sexuality without being criminalised and abused

·         The desire to learn and exchange new sexual skills that can be used by clients in their relationships

·         The need to free themselves from the dictates of moral hypocrites of their African communities

·         The historic fact that Sex trade is mankind's oldest profession and no religious dictatorship can stop it

·         The realisation that in days when the churches and the state were not separated, the sex trade boomed without destroying the family and in countries that legalise sex work today, the family life still exists

·         The lessons from the failure of the American Alcohol Prohibition which was initially introduced to reduce domestic violence presumable cause cause by alcohol, is lesson for African morality watchdogs. With or without strict moral codes, domestic violence continues.

·         The fact that professional sex workers cannot be blamed for the spread of sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) as they, unlike the pretenders and victims of forced prostitution, undergo regular medical inspections and follow stick professional codes. Sex work is older than HIV/AIDS and all the transmissible diseases. The problem is not sex work but irresponsible behaviour of consumers of sex.

The 12.000 members of African Professional Sex Work Union® APSWU are in other words working as Sexuality Consultants offering sexual wellness to African male and female clients. Around 60% of APSWU patrons and matrons are married people looking for ways to reactive their sexual lives. The huge financial satisfaction members of APSWU get in the process of offering sexual and romantic services in one of the positive benefits of working as vetted professionals under the aegis of African Professional Sex Work Union® APSWU.

The APSWU is neither a sect nor a secret society. It is not a prostitution ring but a union of Africans and mixed Africans on the Content and the Diaspora with a common interest of enjoying their freedom of association. For details contact Mr. Alfred Moi, Email: f.moi2002@africanpswu.org, Tel.: 0049(0)1774842957 www.africanpswu.org/campaings.