HIV infections

Monogamous married women are one of the biggest group at risk of HIV infection in Cambodia. They represent 40% of new infections. It is culturally acceptable for married men to have affairs. Indeed, in Cambodia MBA does not mean Masters of Business Administration but Married But Available. It is also normal for them to go to sex workers from as young at fifteen, and indeed the majority of Cambodian men lose their virginity in a brothel.

There is a notion here that all the sex workers are Vietnamese because Cambodian girls are pure and would not enter into that profession. Because of intervention programmes, ninety percent of brothel-based sex workers use condoms and former clients are now going to massage parlours, guesthouses, and beer gardens to pay for sex. The women in these places are vunerable and are not in a position to insist on condom use. Indeed many beer girls have been shot merely for delivering a beer seconds late and the shooters go free.

Power dynamics in Cambodian marriages make it difficult for wives to ask their husbands to wear condoms. Poverty leads to spousal abuse and the disclosure of a wife's HIV status often results in same even if she contracted it from him.

There is a serious lack of knowledge regarding HIV infections and how it is contracted. International organisations and NGOs have programme to educate and empower and it makes a difference but cannot reach the entire population. Child rape has increased because of the belief that having sex with a virgin with cure HIV.

We do what we can and my job is communications officer. I have to write about it.