An outreach team set up to help prostitutes in Waterford says it expects to establish the scale of the problem over the next 12 months. The Doras project, which has been working with limited funds since being informally set up in 1998, officially came into operation yesterday with the support of the South Eastern Health Board and the ISPCC.
Its chairman, Mr Niall McElwee, said the increased resources it had been given would help the project team to gauge accurately how many juveniles and adults were involved. Mr McElwee, who is head of social studies at Waterford Institute of Technology (WIT), was co-author of a controversial study three years ago which claimed 35 juveniles, 50 adult women and five adult men were engaged in prostitution in the city. The figures were challenged by the Garda, which said it had no evidence to support them.
Last year Doras volunteers informed the South Eastern Health Board they had identified prostitutes in the city as young as 12 and 13. Mr McElwee said yesterday a reason the figures were disputed was because the study employed a broader definition of prostitution than generally used.
"For us it relates to anyone involved in exploitative sex, and not just prostitution in the narrow sense. We might be talking about swapping sex for drugs, for example."
Those involved in the project were attempting to befriend people involved in prostitution, assess their needs, refer them to services and collate statistical information.
Some agencies, he said, had very limited knowledge of juvenile prostitution in Waterford and felt it was not an issue they were able to address. As a result people were moved from one service to another when it was clear that a number of juveniles required extensive medical, mental health and social services.
"It is the experience of the Doras team that the people with whom we have come in contact have a range of physical, emotional and financial needs and that these are multifaceted and complex," he said. As a result of their involvement in prostitution, young people were liable to suffer poor physical health, chronic stress, a sense of profound hopelessness and a continuation of the cycle of vulnerability.
As well as the health board and the ISPCC, other bodies involved include the Garda, WIT, the Rape Crisis Centre, the Good Shepherd community and activists from other religious congregations. The project has a freephone helpline number: 1 800 343444.
