GPB Passport icon GPB Passport icon Passport
GPB donate icon GPB donate icon Donate
Sign Up For Our Newsletter

News Articles: No Sex For Fish

Alice Akinyi (left, hand on hip) and Justine Adhiambo Obura, members of the No Sex For Fish group, stand next to Alice's fishing boat at Nduru Beach. It's one of the few boats that have weathered the storms and floods that have beset the area since 2020.

The women of No Sex for Fish are survivors — but their survival is precarious

A group of women in Kenya rebelled against trading sex for a fisherman's catch to sell. They got their own boats, had success — but in past years have faced floods and now fears about HIV medications.

|
By:
  • Viola Kosome and
  • Photos by Julia Gunther
Justine Adhiambo Obura with one of the "No Sex for Fish" boats at Nduru beach. She is the chairperson of the cooperative that came up with a radical idea in a community where fishermen often demanded transactional sex before giving a supply of fish to a woman to sell: What if women had their own boats and hired men to fish for them?

Whatever happened to the 'No Sex for Fish' women after the flood? Hint: It's 'amazing'

That's what a charity worker said of their latest plan. The Kenyan fishmongers got their own boats to escape pressure to trade sex for fish to sell. Then floods wiped them out. Now there's new hope.

|
By:
  • Viola Kosome,
  • Rebecca Davis,
  • and 1 more
A meeting of the table banking group at the home of a member. The photo is from 2019, when No Sex for Fish (and the village) were thriving.

Whatever Happened To ... The Women Who Boldly Declared: 'No Sex For Fish'?

Women in a Kenyan village had a radical idea to stop the practice of trading sex for fish to sell: What if they owned their own boats? They had great success. Then came a series of terrible setbacks.

|
By:
  • Viola Kosome and
  • Marc Silver
Alice Amonde sits on a boat on the village of Nduru Beach, Kenya. She is part of the group of women who have fought against the practice of transactional sex that was part of the fishing business. This photograph was taken in November 2019. This spring, flooding from Lake Victoria devastated the village.

Life Was Improving For 'No Sex For Fish.' Then Came The Flood

In a Kenyan fishing village along Lake Victoria, women fought the practice of fishermen demanding sex in exchange for a catch of fish to sell. They were making progress. Then came the floods of 2020.

|
By:
  • Viola Kosome ,
  • Rebecca Davis,
  • and 1 more