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THE TRAUMA OF TEENAGE PROSTITUTION ON NNTV’s ‘PEOPLE’The Star Tonight - 4 July 1995
by Janet Smith Two years ago, M-Net’s “Carte Blanche”
screened an insert on young Hillbrow prostitutes and their haven, a mecca called
The House. Many
subscribers still remember how sensitively Derek Watts handled the story, which
he effectively broke in the media and which reverberated in the mean streets of
Johannesburg’s most notorious suburb. Tonight
NNTV’s excellent “People” series visits The House and speaks to its
founders Jean and Adele du Plessis, a remarkable couple whose love and
commitment to broken young women has been an important inspiration to them.
This episode of “People” - a series which consistently highlights
extraordinary achievements of those working to change the lives of others -
should not be missed for insight. into teenage prostitution in a city rife with
drug dealers, pimps and criminals.
I went to The House shortly after the insert about it was aired on
“Carte Blanche” and spent hours interviewing Jean and Adele and some of the
girls who called the place home. Jean
walked me through some of Hillbrow’s horror-spots where prostitutes live in
near-squalor, often with their children.
As viewers of tonight’s programme will see, The House - compared to the
nightmare of blocks of flats and seedy hotels reeking of urine and semen - is a
place of comfort and quietness. Not
so much surrogate parents as real friends, Jean and Adele are shoulders to cry
on and people to talk to, with a meal, music, a video, even a bed for the girls
when they need it.
Aids education is a central part of their work (there are always baskets
filled with free condoms in the hallway), but there is still no state welfare
for Jean and Adele who run The House from fund-raising and private donations. For More Information Contact: |
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