$2 Prostition

"Prostitution in Ethiopia has increased massively in the last years. In the capital Addis Ababa, around 130,000 girls support themselves by selling their bodies. Most of the girls are under eighteen, many as young as fourteen. The youngest girls hardly earn enough money to buy their own food, whilst the experienced prostitutes make about two US dollars a night. Condoms, although free in many places, are rarely used. Men prefer to choose the youngest girls since they believe they are HIV free. This keeps lowering the age of those becoming HIV infected.
I met these girls in Addis Ababa and started photographing them. Since many girls don’t have a home they take naps in between pleasing their customers and their days are spent at a hairdressing salon, drinking coffee, sharing their food and sleeping in turns in the back of the shop."
-Berta Banacloche (full story at here, all photos were by this author)