The recent news of Top South African cardiologist Professor Bongani Mayosi’s suicide has put issues of mental illness again on the spotlight. According to his family, Prof. Mayosi committed suicide following a struggle with depression.
We focus today on depression faced by Sex Workers in SA.
In a recent study, conducted in SA, the researchers focused on 508 sex workers across Soweto in a study that took place over seven months during 2016. Of that total, only two of the participants weren’t black and 16 were migrants. What the study further revealed was that two-thirds of the sex workers went hungry regularly and 50% of them were binge drinkers. Only 14% claimed they had never been a victim of violence.
A survey in India also found that female sex workers had depression rates of 39%, while in Nepal it was 82.4%.What is behind this?
GUEST: Kholi Buthelezi - who is the national coordinator for Sisonke
GUEST: Jenny Coetzee-One of the researchers for the study, which appeared in the journal, Plos One.