27/12/2024
(Mast, Friday December 27, 2024)
We’ve been hit hard
…because of climate change - s*x workers
By Charles chisala
WE’RE struggling to make money because climate change has drastically reduced our clients’ capacity to pay for our services, s*x workers have said.
And s*x workers have appealed to religious leaders to stop being judgmental towards them but instead help them to reform through compassionate messages and counselling.
Senior s*x worker Josephine (not real name), who said she has been in the business for over 30 years, said in Lusaka government and other stakeholders must include them in empowerment programmes to cushion them from the negative effects of climate change.
“This climate change thing hasn’t spared us. In fact, we’ve been hit harder because it has now entered the pockets of our clients. Many men have either lost their jobs or are simply not earning enough to spare some money to pay for our services. As a result, they’re preferring to stay away from us. But we need to survive,” she said in flawless English.
The s*x workers are crying out for empathy, empowerment so that they can stop the oldest business and do something else for survival.
The woman, who is now in her late 50s, was speaking during a dialogue meeting between religious leaders and s*x workers at the National AIDS Council (NAC) in Lusaka’s Woodlands organised by the Zambia Network for Religious Leaders Living with or Affected by AIDS (ZANERELA+).
Josephine is a leader of a network of support groups for s*x workers plying their business in various townships of Lusaka, including Chawama and Kalingalinga, under ZANERELA+’s Hands Off Project.
Because of the drastic reduction in business as the number of clients continues dwindling, many s*x workers are being forced to reduce their fees to as low as K20 just to survive.
“Life has become quite tough for us out there because of this climate change. We’re being forced to charge less than we normally used to charge. We’re sometimes charging as low as K20 so that we can at least go home with something. This is making some men look at us as cheap. Sometimes they’re even demanding free services. But this is our business. This is what we survive on,” Josephine said before a packed boardroom.
She commended ZANERELA+ for helping the s*x workers to form support groups through which they are receiving counselling, medical care as well as empowerment.
“We are indeed grateful to ZANERELA+ and its Hands Off Project. Through these support groups, some s*x workers have been empowered and have either completely stopped this business or are doing it part-time,” Josephine said.
And s*x workers have appealed to religious leaders to stop being judgmental towards them but instead help them to reform through compassionate messages and counselling.
Josephine, who spoke on behalf of other s*x workers in Lusaka, said religious leaders in the Christian and Islam faiths should change their attitudes and stop demonising s*x workers.
“How will they help us to reform if all they do during their preaching is call us all kinds of names while we are seated there? We also want to come to church and worship like you people. We want to listen to messages of hope and compassion which can help us to change,” Josephine said.
“We go through a lot as s*x workers. We want to go to church hoping that it will make us feel better. But imagine, one time I went to a church because I was really feeling low. I just wanted to listen to messages and prayers of hope.
“But when the preacher started preaching, from nowhere he started saying, ‘you prostitutes will go to hell because you destroy marriages of other women’. I felt as if he was directly referring to me,” she said.
Josephine sent the boardroom roaring with laughter when she said she was now in the process of “retiring” and settling down with one man because she had reached a stage where she was enjoying the s*xual contacts with her clients.
“I am retiring because in our business once you begin enjoying the encounters you will not make any money. You’ll fail to charge your clients any money because you will have appreciated the pleasure,” she said.
One of the pastors who has been working with Josephine and her support groups said once religious leaders showed compassion and readiness to help, the s*x workers exhibited remorse and a strong willingness to change.
Another pastor who asked to only be identified as Pastor R said three of the regular congregants at his church were s*x workers, whom he had accepted and had been helping.
“They’re on a serious counselling programme and are already showing signs of discomfort with their business. All they need now is empowerment with a skill on which they can survive,” he said.
ZANERELA country director Gershom Kapalaula said his organisation was impressed so far with the positive results coming from its work with s*x workers and religious leaders under the Hands Off Project.
Reverend Kapalaula urged the delegates to come up with suggestions on how to cushion the s*x workers from the negative effects of climate change they had just complained about.
During the same dialogue meeting it was reported that some of the s*x workers were Moslems but did not want their colleagues to know.
ZANERELA is part of the consortium of organisations providong support to s*x workers and other key populations under the National Coordinating Council of the Global Fund, which is house by the National AIDS Council.
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