Madina: 16-Year Old Sex Worker Pregnant

When they are not making sales from sex, two sisters living at Madina, a suburb of the capital, Accra, live on charity and chores.

Maafia, 16-years and Amdia - 14 years sleep on the hard ground when they are not sleeping around with men in a bustling Madina suburb in Accra.

The teenage sex workers have to sleep with several men daily to make enough to buy food from the several joints in the neighbourhood.

They wash bowls at food joints and take hand-outs from the vendors around.

They dropped out of school after their father dropped out of his marriage and left them to the care of their Grandmother in the village and later their mother in Accra.

Amdia remembers that when she was a little girl in the village, a man defiled her after he sent her to buy him 'pure water'.

She was asked by the man to bring the sachet water into his room and when she did, he locked the door. That was her initiation into sex and when times got hard she fell on it to stand on her feet.

Joy News intern Frank Addo found them huddled together at a gravelled ground at Madina. Some dresses packed in a handbag and polythene bags told a story of their homelessness.

The two sisters shared their income and their depression.

They cannot really remember the love of parents, only the lust of men who pay a pittance when they have no pity for their plight.

Maafia who is older does more of the sex rounds while her 14-year old sister plays back-up.

The 16-year old sister and caretaker of the 14-year old is now pregnant - has been for three months now. Very soon she will not be able to earn any money through the sex trade.

A man who does odd jobs at a drinking spot impregnated her and has asked her not to abort promising to take care of her.

But it is still a promise for the girl who desperately wants to believe in anybody's offer of help.

The two say returning to their mother is a return to a life of abuse. Their frustrated mother is keen to push them out of the streets.

No school, no skills, no home, the two sisters now think about how Maafia will soon become a mother. They fear the child could become a bother.