Cambodia's Female Beer Promoters are HIV Health Risk

A Cambodian "beer girl" fills a glass of Tiger beer at a restaurant in Phnom Penh. Each "beer girl" tries to sell a particular label of beer and hopes the customer will pick her to pour his beer all night. Photo: AP

Robert Carmichael, VOA

Phnom Penh

Tuesday, 25 May 2010

Cambodia's drinking culture sees groups of men head to beer gardens after work. Once there, women in uniforms advertising global brands try to persuade the men to drink their brand, but risks to the health of these women have some worried.

Across Cambodia about 4,000 women work as beer promoters in hundreds of beer halls. Their job is to persuade men to drink their brand of beer.

But a new report by Professor Ian Lubek of Canada's University of Guelph says the low wages beer promoters receive force many into sex work.

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