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Dickson Mangena, Sunday News Reporter
A LOCAL women empowerment organisation has set up a sex workers protection scheme aimed at giving sex workers professional options by providing them with alternative skills training.
The organisation’s, Upfumi Kumadzimai-Inotho Kubomama, operations directors Mr Bwiridza Ndlovu and Ms Nonceba Agwaniru said, they were offering sex workers a unique protection scheme tailor-made to protect and safeguard the future of members and their dependants by providing alternative skills.
“The organisation realised that sex workers have not been looked at as workers even though their operations have been legalised. We realised that there are a lot of issues and responsibilities that drive people into sex working and therefore we set up a scheme that will recognise and try to help them in whatever ways they need,” said Mr Ndlovu.
Mr Ndlovu said the scheme is not necessarily to force them to stop from being sex workers but to empower them.
“We will not force them into anything but with the understanding on how people usually get into sex work, we are going to talk to them and find out what they are interested in alternatively then we help in training them,” Mr Ndlovu said.
He said the organisation is already involved in a number of empowerment projects and is also lobbying other organisations to help in any way they can.
“We are an organisation that is running some project like jam making farming and many others, so for those interested we will adopt them into these projects. We are also lobbying other organisations to also help us with some of the young sex workers who may want to finish school,” said Mr Ndlovu.
Ms Agwaniru said all the interested people would need to register and become members and get to benefit from many of the benefits that come with it.
“We will require that the interested parties register in the scheme and get to just pay subscriptions that will enable them to reap the benefits that are available for them. The scheme will also have benefits that include medical aid, funeral policy, dependant protection scheme skills training, education programmes among many other benefits,” Ms Agwaniru said.
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