Women of the night wipe the slate clean

TWENTY-FOUR former prostitutes yesterday celebrated the start of their new lives with Women’s Action for Development (WAD) and the Council of Churches in Namibia (CCN).

The former prostitutes, who prefer to now be referred to as ‘the King’s daughters’, donned graduation gowns to receive certificates from WAD after completing training in subjects such as baking, needlework and fabric painting. According to Father Herman Hitpass of the Roman Catholic Church, who for many years has helped sex workers to improve their living conditions, there are 1 240 prostitutes recorded on his register.Seventy-five per cent of them are believed to be HIV positive.’The King’s daughters’ say that after years of earning their living on the streets, they are now able to do more socially acceptable work.At a ceremony in Windhoek, some of the women used the opportunity to warn people about why young men and women resort to selling their bodies, as well as to shame prominent figures in society who they say are well known in the red-light areas.”I’m highly disturbed about what we’ve heard.I think President (Hifikepunye) Pohamba needs to know about this,” WAD Executive Director Veronica de Klerk said.”We will not name names, but I am extremely disappointed over some of those names we have heard,” she told those in attendance.Maria Booys, recalled how Police officers would often throw prostitutes in Police vans, and “use us for themselves”.Others, people from the upper levels of society, would often sleep with them for as little as N$5 or N$10, she said, and insisted on not using condoms.”These are the real prostitutes.The ones with the nice cars, the money in their pockets, who don’t even want to use a condom while they know that 75 per cent of these women are HIV-positive,” commented Reverend Phillip Strydom, General Secretary of the CCN.Booys criticised Namibian society, which she said discarded thousands of people on the streets every year, starting with high school dropouts.”At shebeens, we sleep (with men) for a can of fish, we sleep for a beer,” she said, arguing that poverty was the ultimate cause of prostitution.According to Father Herman Hitpass of the Roman Catholic Church, who for many years has helped sex workers to improve their living conditions, there are 1 240 prostitutes recorded on his register.Seventy-five per cent of them are believed to be HIV positive.’The King’s daughters’ say that after years of earning their living on the streets, they are now able to do more socially acceptable work.At a ceremony in Windhoek, some of the women used the opportunity to warn people about why young men and women resort to selling their bodies, as well as to shame prominent figures in society who they say are well known in the red-light areas.”I’m highly disturbed about what we’ve heard.I think President (Hifikepunye) Pohamba needs to know about this,” WAD Executive Director Veronica de Klerk said.”We will not name names, but I am extremely disappointed over some of those names we have heard,” she told those in attendance.Maria Booys, recalled how Police officers would often throw prostitutes in Police vans, and “use us for themselves”.Others, people from the upper levels of society, would often sleep with them for as little as N$5 or N$10, she said, and insisted on not using condoms.”These are the real prostitutes.The ones with the nice cars, the money in their pockets, who don’t even want to use a condom while they know that 75 per cent of these women are HIV-positive,” commented Reverend Phillip Strydom, General Secretary of the CCN.Booys criticised Namibian society, which she said discarded thousands of people on the streets every year, starting with high school dropouts.”At shebeens, we sleep (with men) for a can of fish, we sleep for a beer,” she said, arguing that poverty was the ultimate cause of prostitution.