The countdown to the new school year is on, and 25-year-old Kayla* is facing the crushing reality of being unable to send her brilliant eight-year-old daughter back to school. To make ends meet, the desperate single mom hustles on the dangerous sex strip along Portmore’s infamous Back Road. But with business slow, she has been struggling to buy textbooks, uniforms and shoes for her child. “Mi just don’t have the money right now,” Kayla told THE STAR. “Mi price it, but mi can’t buy uniform, and then nothing nuh deh inna the house fi eat. So, mi keep telling myself, ‘Next week.’ But next week come and the money still not there.” Her daughter, a grade-three student at a primary school, who finished last term with a stellar 92 per cent average, has big dreams to match her brains. “She tell me she wants to be the next female prime minister so that she can advocate for people who really need help,” Kayla said. “She tell me... ‘Mommy, sometimes people just want a start in life. I hope one day I can give them, even you, Mommy, that start.’”  Kayla, a single mother, estimates that it will cost roughly $100,000 to fund back-to-school expenses. However, she is nowhere close to that target.  “When you add uniform, shoes, books, everything, it run up,” said Kayla, adding that she has managed to purchase just two books and some stationery from her child’s booklist. The uniform, shoes and school bag are still to be bought. The worried mother said her financial squeeze is compounded by a massive drop in income on the strip. While Kayla once raked in $20,000 or more a night, she now spends hours waiting only to walk away with $5,000—or nothing at all. “This year especially things got really slow. It just dead,” she said. “Everybody a bargain... Sometimes what him have don’t even make sense.” Kayla’s descent into sex work started years ago. Pregnant at 17, her life veered off course fast. Her parents allegedly kicked her out, and the child’s father skipped out on his responsibilities. She managed to land a steady job at a local bar, but that safety net evaporated four years ago when her daughter fell ill with a nasty cold. With no childcare support, Kayla stayed home to nurse her then four-year-old. The bar owner fired her on the spot for walking off the job. Unemployed and desperate, Kayla turned to the Back Road for quick cash and flexible hours. “If my daughter sick, mi don’t have to call no boss and beg them,” she explained. “When she a sleep, me out here a work.” Last year, Kayla had all her daughter’s school gear bought and paid for weeks before the new term began. This year, however, the picture is starkly different. With the local economy stalling and clients cutting back, she is running out of both options and time. And as the financial pressure mounts, so too does the emotional toll. “It’s very depressing... I’m just a human,” Kayla said. “Sometimes mi reach home and just feel tired. Not even physically, just tired of figuring out everything.” Still, Kayla is determined to shield her eight-year-old daughter from the stress weighing on her. “She [is] eight. Why she need fi worry about bills? Mi want her biggest problem to be homework,” Kayla said. That determination is even stronger because Kayla knows how hard her daughter works at school. Her academic performance, she said, makes her unwilling to let financial struggles stand in the way of her education. “Mi worried, but mi going find a way,” she said. “Mi always find a way fi make mi daughter alright. She’s a trying little girl. Last term she had a 92 per cent average. Mi affi try 10 times harder.”

*Name changed to protect identity.