Commercial Sex Workers working with THASINTA in Mkushi and Luano Districts are shunning skills related jobs in preference to the sex industry.
The sex workers are said to be showing no desire to abandon their sex trade saying it gives them quick money to sustain their welfare as opposed to skills such as tailoring which take long for them to earn money.
THASINTA Coordinator for Mkushi and Luano Districts Agness Ng’andu disclosed the development to ZANIS in an interview in Mkushi District.
Mrs Nkandu said her organisation has in the last 12 months encountered setbacks in its efforts to facilitate and provide alternative livelihood to Sex Workers.
She charged that the development if left unchecked and resolved will affect the reform programme and jeopardise efforts made in combating HIV and AIDS.
Mrs Ng’andu explained that her organisation had invested heavily in procuring several sewing machines which are presently not being utilised.
THASINTA has been working with a group of 38 sex workers in the two districts to reform them and engage them in alternative decent sources of income generation.
Mrs Ng’andu said the sex workers justified their return to their trade claiming that the industry is lucrative and a money spinner.
She however, expressed optimism that the sex workers will return to the programme and help add impetus to combating HIV and AIDS.
Mrs Ng’andu has since called for concerted and extensive efforts of sensitizing sex workers to abandon the industry and reduce the threat and spread of HIV and AIDS in communities.
The Lesson you, Mrs Ngandu, should learn is not to be judgmental. Let the sex workers get their sewing skills BUT allow them to ply their trade if they want.
They will eventually stop selling sex when they realise that needle work is sustainable and that decision should always be theirs entirely.
It is high time you realised that sex work is for both money and enjoyment. Most of the sex workers actually enjoy sex so they emotionally miss it when they don’t get it – you cant ignore this otherwise they will all run away!
In Europe, sex therapists recognise this and their emphasis at first is safe sex even before skills training.
@Chilyata. You sound like a pimp…. just saying
‘@chilyata…is right in a way….it has to be themselves to make that decision of quitting and not at Mrs Nkandu’s command or persuasion….for now, just concentrate on giving them that life skills while emphasis on safe sex….usually, when the market dwindles either due to advanced age or stiff competition from new comers (younger ones), they will surrender on their own and fall back on the skills u are teaching them now..even then it will still be a gradual process…they will still engage in prostitution but at a secretive and lower rate..Mrs Nkandu shouldn’t give up…if she can turn around atleast one soul out of 20 is still good enough..just like pastors claim…out of a thousand congregants, if their sermons touches and change only one soul.they have achieved something…
@Scrutinizerer
You couldn’t put it more clearly. It’s not like these sex workers were coerced and forced at gun-point into prostitution. They always had a choice and deliberately cold-bloodedly decided prostitution offered a faster way to make lots of money compared to other professions that require huge investments of time and money before they pay off. Wisely these commercial sex providers could take advantage of the skills being offered to them as insurance or something to fall back on when their looks fade and as you put it, stiffer competition from younger and better looking prostitutes makes plying their trade a harder task. Forcing them to abandon prostitution at once won’t work.
the problem is that NGOs have concentrated much on the ‘sellers’ forgetting the ‘procurement’ pipo. efforts shud be made to educate the purchasers aswell, otherwise with availabel market, the ladies will continue sliding back, so both sides of the coin need serious touch
Universal Education is the most viable strategy as long as skills training is readily available at affordable rates followed by internships. The internships serve as an eye opener for the potential job seeker. Keep on NGO but engage Government through tough advocacy. You sound casual and relaxed but Government needs clear advocates for the needy memebers of society.
Chilyata is very right. Even Nkandu Luo who has a good profession which earns a much more larger income as a medical doctor and MP still craves for sex even after divorce . If no one can give her free sex she has to buy it, please be fair sex is a psychological need much as it is an economic venture
is this NKANDU LUOS YOUNG SISTER , first i have to sex the boss to feel how good it is to continue in the street, we need these women of vibrancy, their tuma ntwanikani are very sweet as compared to women at home or so called steady girl friend
If we make all sex workers get out of the street then expect a rise in defilement cases
Bana Kabuswe are not interested in learning any other skills other than conjugal related gymnastics
You will not reduce the level of HIV/AIDS by removing a few sex workers from the trade. You only reduce HIV/AIDS with extensive public education promoting safe sex practices.
I do not know about Japan but in countries where sex work is legal the AIDS problem does not center on sex workers who by an large practice safe sex it is more a problem in the general community and in IV drug users. The HIV/Aids justification sounds more like an excuse to demonise sex workers to me.