17-y-o prostitute wants a better life

Candy* wept on the telephone as she sought to convey how desperate her situation is. She is 17 and has been a prostitute for the past year.

“Things hard inna a way fi seh you nuh have a yard to go, and you affi a kotch a sex shop and thing ... a whole heap a time me get stab up and robbed. People beat mi and tek step a mi,” said Candy as she cried for help.

A native of central Jamaica, Candy said she was placed in state care from she was eight years old. She said that she spent time in several homes until she ran away one year ago.

Candy told THE WEEKEND STAR that she has been to a total of 11 homes in a four-year span and it has taken a toll on her.

FEEL UNWANTED

“Mi use to get box inna me face with slippers from older girls and the worse part of it is that when a visiting time, everybody a get visitors and nobody naah visit me. Mi did feel so depressed and unwanted. This affected me emotionally,” she said.

“The only person me could a trust was a social worker and she died last year in a car crash. I have been suicidal since because the one person who I could talk to about anything was gone. Mi mada give up pan me from me a eight year old,” she cried.

Candy said that she regrets running away from state care.

“Them seh cow never know the use a him tail til him lose it. That catch me now because when I tried going back home they said they not going to take me because I am soon 18. I just know that this is not me and I can do better and that is what I want for myself,” she said.

Candy is hoping that she will soon be able to escape from her current reality of being a prostitute.