By Ashwert Kugara

ZIMBABWE AIDS Prevention and Support Organisation (ZAPSO) has embarked on a seven-week training programme for commercial sex workers in Mashonaland Central aimed at curbing the prevalence of the HIV or AIDS pandemic. ZAPSO provincial programme manager, Thomas Kazonda said they had tailor-made behaviour change programmes targeting high-risk groups in society, which include sex workers. Commercial sex work involves the practice of providing sexual services to another person in return for payment and is illegal in Zimbabwe. According to the National Aids Council, over 35 000 people are currently on anti-retroviral (ARV) drugs while recorded new infections are estimated at around 6 000. The training programme, according to Kazonda, comprises the Love and Respect manual which uses participatory methods on various HIV and AIDS-related issues such as gender and the promotion of balanced relationships. The graduands are awarded with certificates after completing the course. “Behaviour change is a process but they (sex workers) will eventually live normal lives,” he said, and added that knowledge is power. He said the organisation in collaboration with its various partners committed was assisting these women to seek recovery from their traumatic lifestyle through training. He said the National Aids Council (NAC) hosted ball games for those who participate, adding that “an idle mind is the devil’s workshop”. Increased poverty, it had been noted, forced sex workers to engage in risky behaviors such as engaging in unprotected sex for clients who insist onthe back of their fat pockets. Sex trade is also surrounded by illegal and dangerous activities such as drug trafficking and alcohol abuse. “Age mixing in sexual activities has seen key survivors of HIV and AIDS passing on experience to the young people,” he said. This, he said, was a major factor contributing to the relatively high HIV prevalence in young women. In an interview with one sex worker who only identified herself as Tsitsi, a school drop-out who resides in Manhenga rural community, a few kilometres from Bindura urban, said the need to survive under harsh economic conditions led her into prostitution. She said after her mother succumbed to the AIDS pandemic, she became the family’s sole breadwinner. “When she passed away in 2004, no one was forthcoming to pay my school fees and since most of my relatives live in Malawi, I had no other means of survival except to resort to prostitution,” she said. She said it was really hard to recover from the body peddling business as it had become the only viable means of survival. Tsitsi, however, said the training programme had been an eye opener to various challenges that they had been underestimating especially the dangers posed to humanity through HIV infections. Tsitsi said that through the knowledge she acquired including self-help, she had decided to venture into buying and selling anything on demand but legal on the market. She said the successes in her endeavors were rooted in her capacity to get capital to kick start her business, which she said had been a thorn in the flesh to fulfil her dreams. As advice to other sex workers, Tsitsi said, “There is more to life than using one’s body for commercial gain”. On the other hand, Kazonda said some modern Christian sects had also become high-risk groups as they resist the practice of safe sex while sexual reproductive issues had been deemed as “taboo” in the family units. ZAPSO last year expanded its operations from only three districts to all the eight districts in the province. To ensure successful behaviour change programmes in the province, ZAPSO has revived the Ward Aids Action Committees (WAAC) and District Aids Action Committees (DAAC) through the custodian of community opinion leaders. This, he said, has increased the demand for HIV testing and counseling in