Her name is PC, she is 57 years old, transgender and she earns her money as a fortune teller at the Poipet market, where she also cleans on demand. She has known for 10 years that she is HIV-positive, but became ill because she didn’t have enough money to take her medicine with food.
Sex worker, volunteer HIV project, cleaning lady and fortune teller
PC (we only use initials because of the privacy) has a very special life path. In her younger years she left for Pattaya where she started working as a sex worker. In that work she probably became infected with HIV. Later she also worked as a volunteer in a project for people with HIV at the first Cambodian partner organisation of the Untenu Foundation: CPN Plus.
Once back in Cambodia, she moved to the border town of Poipet in the province of Bantey Meanchey. Poipet is a city that has grown strongly in recent years, partly due to the number of casinos that are located there because of its location on the border with Thailand. Because of this Poipet also attracts many sex workers.
Meanwhile PC earns a living as a fortune teller on the market. Fortune tellers can be found at every market in Cambodia. She also cleans on demand at the market in Poipet. However, all this was not enough to always get food. This is why PC has often taken her HIV inhibitors without food. In some therapies this is prescribed to avoid endangering the effect of the medication. With other HIV-inhibitors it is precisely to prevent stomach problems. And that was precisely the result for PC.
Our partner organization Bandanh Chaktomok found her sick and rang the bell. Earlier she had no money to consult a doctor. That is why Untenu Foundation has made money available so that volunteers can provide her with food aid and medical assistance in Poipet.
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