Speaking in Bulawayo this weekend at a round table meeting
organised by Pan African Positive Women’s Coalition Zimbabwe (PAPWC ZIM)
Elizabeth Mpofu (40) said these women were coming from mostly Harare and
renting space at houses demarcated by curtains.
They, reportedly conduct sex work in these houses for days
and leave for their homes with cash and groceries.
“I think this is caused by lazy men who don’t want to work
for their families.
“At the end of the day these unsuspecting men are infected
with sexually transmitted diseases like HIV,” she said.
Mpofu who is a sex worker said they encounter challenges
with artisanal miners who refuse to pay for services and refuse to have
protected sex.
Also, a group of men who sniff “mutoriro” are giving sex
workers in Kadoma a torrid time by having marathon sex sessions which last for
hours.
“All these challenges leave sex workers vulnerable to
gender based violence (GBV) and at high risk of STI/HIV infections. We want to
thank the sister clinic at Kadoma Hospital established by Centre for sexual
health and HIV AIDS research (CeSHHAR),” he said.
“The clinic which attends to sex workers on a daily basis
offers free cancer screening, post exposure prophylaxis (PEP), ART and sexually
transmitted infection screening and treatment.”
Director of Voice of the Voiceless, Cathrine Madondo who
work with sex workers agreed on the influx of married women venturing in sex
work.
Some of the married women are not interested in money and
lack of sex in their marriage are pushing them into sex work, she said.
“They take advantage of their husbands’ shifts to sneak
out. We have a huge number of married women in sex work now. Our target group
is sex workers and I noticed the need to engage this group in 2011 at Victoria
Falls and Hwange truck stops,” said Madondo.
“Young girls from 15 years to 31 came forward with
testimonies on various issues that pushed them into sex work. Most of them,
including pregnant ones, would be abused by truck drivers.
“We have testimonies of sex workers being forced to be
intimate or breast with animals like tortoise and dogs.
“I started engaging businesses in Vic Falls to employ some
of them even as general hand. Some are now sewing tents for truckers as well as
doing their laundry to earn an income.
“Should they be engaged for sex we encourage them to demand
safe sex and payment for service. Now they have created a group to check on
each other for safety.”
Madondo said they had negotiated with the local authorities
to allocate a stand to some of the sex workers for security of their children;
some of them are aging.
She said Ceshhar took some of the sex workers but a huge
number is still in the streets.
She added that some of them who are intelligent and have
capacity to continue academically are being re-integrated in the education
system. H Metro
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