Girls as young as 12 engaging in sex work, sometimes get paid with empty bottles

According to research done by the Zimbabwe National Council for the Welfare of Children (ZNCWC) girls as young as 12 are engaging in sex work. In some cases, the girls do not get paid in cash but get things such as empty bottles, food, clothes and blankets.

Presenting the results of the study, titled, “Young Women in Commercial Sexual Exploitation along Two Transport Corridors in Zimbabwe: Causes, Initiation, Prevalence and Use of HIV and Social Services” Maxim Murungweni, a senior official with ZNCWC said:

Can you imagine that some of the girls we interviewed during the study told us that they were given some empty beer or soft drink bottles as payment, which they would then sell for less than $0.50 cents each. said.

Although the majority of them reported being paid cash for providing their services some told us that they were paid in kind with the other items of payment other than bottles being, used blankets, clothes and even food.

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