Partners in Health (PIH) last weekend through corridor project has supported 287 registered sex workers under Tikondane Sex Workers Alliance in Zalewa , Neno district with loans and access to health care at their clinic.
This initiative mobilises sex workers to get condoms which they can give to truck drivers which are their usual customers.
Since the inception of the project, 27 sex workers stopped the malpractice, started running small scale businesses and seven of them got married.
Project Manager of Corridor project Russell Msiska said the project brings capacity building and information to sex workers on how they can manage their lives.
He said: “About 118 are on ARTs, that’s a plus to us because they cannot die. We are giving them loans that they have manage to open a restaurant.”
“We are giving them training on how they can save money and manage a business that will help them to completely stop doing sex work.”
One of the sex workers [name withheld] said the project has helped their group to get easy access to ARVs and other related treatments without challenges.
The event started on Saturday and ended Sunday to promoting screening of different types of diseases as most people in communities are reluctant to go to health centers for screening.
