Sex workers get scholarships

sex workers since finishing Advanced Level in 1999.
But now she has a chance to go back to school and obtain a degree. It sounds strange but this is set to happen to 27 commercial sex workers this year as they are helped to abandon their former livelihood and start new lives.
In all about 450 commercial sex workers are being given a second chance and the 27 with A-Level will start degree programmes with Zimbabwe Open University.
A few months ago in Shurugwi a sex worker was fatally stabbed by a client after a dispute over payment for services.
This and other related cases of sex workers being brutalised by their clients touched Shurugwi North legislator and Minister of Environment and Natural Resources Management Francis Nhema.
Minister Nhema instructed Shurugwi District Administrator Mr Joram Chimedza to convene a meeting with all self confessed sex workers with him one weekend.
“We registered 250 of the ladies because some of them were not forthcoming, possibly questioning the minister’s agenda,” said Mr Chimedza.
Last weekend the women gathered at the DA’s office for the meeting with the minister.
“We did not know what to expect from the minister in the wake of the murder case,” one of the women, Ms Sarudzai Gore said.
The minister initially took the women on a soul-searching session, at the same time assuring them that each one of them was unique and that they had the potential to contribute positively to the development of the world.
“Mbuya Nehanda was a woman like you, she did not have all the opportunities you have today, but she made use of the little time she had and left a legacy,” Minister Nhema said
“Whatever your childhood dreams, you can still achieve them now at your age, through faith and will power is needed,” he said.
After the meeting, minister Nhema gave them the floor to express what they felt about themselves.
One of them who is a single mother of two openly said she hated her character as it always caused her to clash with society’s expectations.
Minister Nhema concluded his presentation by giving floor to numerous speakers who spoke to the women on various economic empowerment programmes.
By the end of the meeting, it was discovered 27 women were eligible to register for degree programmes with Zimbabwe Open University and 35 others qualified for diploma programmes with the same college.
Minister Nhema gave them scholarships.
“None of us in here is perfect and like any one of us, you all deserve second chances. It is all up to you to use the chance wisely,” the minister told the sobbing women.
Meanwhile, all the single mothers registered their children for scholarships, which are all effective at the beginning of next term.
The women were later grouped according to their villages of origin and were enrolled for various projects with all resources provided.
Minister Nhema offered to pay medical bills for an eight-year boy who had sustained serious burns in a fire accident.