The Well, situated in a quiet road in Easton , provides a rare and much needed facility – a supported house for women exiting the sex industry or at risk of becoming involved with it. Nearly all have had drug or alcohol dependency problems, and some have been in prison. The women here are safe, comfortable and cared about, but everyone concerned continues to learn and adjust to their experiences and needs….
Sarah says –
My problem is drinking. If it wasn’t for The Well I’d be homeless now.
I’ve been doing fine here. People say I’m looking better. I’ve done courses at College and voluntary work with old people. But I always get to a certain stage and then it gets hard. For the first few months it’s really nice – lovely surroundings, and talking to the staff is such a relief. The house holds you safe for a while – then you have to start doing it for yourself, and it’s so hard to get the incentive. I get stuck – I don’t feel I’m moving on. Then I get negative and I know this could send me back to the drinking. This is a safe place, but sometimes I don’t feel safe in my head.
The thing is about working on the streets – you get sick of doing it but you don’t get bored – there’s something to work for and look forward to, even if it’s only the drugs. Sometimes I feel the fight’s gone out of me.
What I need to do now is to move up a level – to find something that really matters. It’s not a relationship I want. I need to find something for myself. That’s the difficulty.
Leanne says –
There’s nothing like The Well in the town I come from. I’d just come out of prison, after breaching an ASBO for prostitution. If I hadn’t come here I’d have gone back to a house with other addicts, and straight back on the streets. It’s good to be here, but it’s a problem to adjust. There’s the difficulty of living on far less money than you’re used to; my benefit’s around £102 for two weeks – I used to earn that in half an hour.
Sometimes I miss life in the fast lane – the night life. I know it sounds stupid but I miss the excitement of meeting punters and not knowing what’s going to happen.
Getting back to normality is hard – doing the same domestic stuff every day, without the excitement. On the streets I’ve been robbed, battered, raped – I never knew whether this was the last car I would ever get into, and my parents would get that phone call. Once I had a gun waved in my face. It sounds stupid, but it was exciting. I never thought about the danger at the time, but I did when I was in prison.
So what makes it worthwhile? In the last few months I’ve been able to have a relationship again with my four children and the rest of my family. I’ve been going to college, and I’ve got a boyfriend. The boundaries are there for a reason, and if I’ve achieved so much in a few months, what can I achieve in two or three years?
It’s worth it – that’s the message I want to give. It is worth it.
|
