Contrary to the believe of many that call girls are only found in high market areas, Nancy* who is 42 years old and lives in Mathare with her three children; one son and two daughters has been acting as a call girl for a while now, she loves this business because although she gets to make money, she is assured of business particularly during all times in the month and safety in the course of the business. She has her own established clients who visit her or she visits them strictly on appointment.

Nancy’s day starts with her sleeping for the better part of the morning to compensate for the sleep lost during the night. She arrives in her house in the early hours of the morning and goes right to bed. Her children who share her small one roomed house are used to their mother coming home in the morning; lately her son is getting uncomfortable with this behavior and has been questioning her about where she goes for the night. She is starting to find this very difficult with her son growing older and understanding more about his surrounding and his mother’s life style.

Nancy has about 10 regular clients, she sees each one of them at least once per week, sometimes some of her clients don’t call for a week, and sometimes only gets one call leading to her income reducing.  This means that she sometimes has to subsidize her income by seeing other clients. She may then go out into the night looking for clients in the neighboring pubs or in the streets. Nancy is well known by her target clients so she easily gets the clients.All her regular clients are from her neighborhood, when they need her services they call her on her mobile phone and book an appointment with her. The business is sometimes conducted in her house if it is during the day and her children are away in school, and sometimes the client can ask her to join them in a rented room in the neighborhood. Her rates are fixed for her regular clients, so this makes it easy for her because she does not have to keep negotiating with them; her regular clients also pay her promptly and are less likely to refuse to pay her.

When all her clients have money which is usually at the end and beginning of month, her business is good because they call her more often. Her rates for other extra clients vary from one client to another, she can charge as low as 100/= and as high as 1000/= depending on her rating of the client’s ability. However she is not comfortable and does not entirely feel comfortable with these clients, she knows too well the risks of dealing with clients who have picked her from the pub or road side.

Nancy perceives her risks as lower than for other commercial sex workers peddling sex in the streets or in pubs. This she says is highly because she knows her clients and has developed some kind of bonding and trust with them. She feels that they are unlikely to harm her or even “exploit” her. Nancy is worried since her children are starting to ask her questions. She feels that her son’s disapproval will increase with time and reckons that they still do not know what her work entails but soon they will. She does not want her children to grow up knowing her lifestyle but she has no alternative. Her business has been good and is providing for her and educating her children, and she feels that this is all that matters for now. Nancy has had no access to any organizations that work with commercial sex workers nor does she know where she can get basic information on sexually transmitted diseases and HIV/AIDS. She is however interested in knowing where these services can be found.
 
* Name has been changed to protect identity