Direct Commercial Sex Workers in Phnom Penh have some of the highest HIV prevalence rates in Southeast Asia. In brothels frequented by A.E.E. outreach workers, the prevalence rates are staggering, often ranging between 40 and 60%.
Sadly, the combination of such a vast disease reservoir and an ineffectual national healthcare strategy has resulted in the untold sufferings, and needless deaths, of countless young women. Exploited since their earliest years, CSW’s, once ill, are simply discarded by their exploiters, and left to die in the streets. Without money to pay for healthcare costs, they suffer the final insult of a life lived without dignity.
At A.E.E. we take a proactive stance on HIV care. Our mission is as follows:
1) To prevent the transmission of HIV through grassroots education initiatives and condom distribution programs;
2) To prevent to evolution of HIV to full blown AIDS though our case management program; and
3) To provide dignity and compassion to ailing patients in the later stages of their illness.
By providing sponsorship to an HIV positive CSW, you can help show a young woman a kindness and compassion that she has likely never known. You can provide the increased nutrition that she needs to stay healthy, the education she needs to protect herself, and the guidance she needs to navigate the fragmented Cambodian healthcare system.
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