King's Daughters (CCN) BEC

Prostitution is a seemingly unavoidable product of poverty. With Namibia's 36 percent unemployment rate, and many of those with work earning barely enough to survive, thousands of people, mainly women, turn to sex work to feed themselves and their families.

Adding the country's 20 percent HIV/AIDS infection rate and the criminal status of prostitution to widespread economic hardship makes prostitution extremely dangerous. Prostitutes in Namibia commonly report being beaten, forced to perform bestiality, abuse by police, exploitation by pimps and drug addiction. They work in an unprotected environment, and are frequently forced to have unprotected sex, exposing them to HIV infection. Many also report knowing dozens of other sex workers who have been murdered.

The King's Daughters project is an initiative of the Council of Churches of Namibia (CCN), a non-denominational faith-based organisation that provides support to people living with HIV/AIDS, orphans and other vulnerable groups. CCN provides skills training, psycho-social support and employment opportunities to sex workers in an effort to move them away from their extremely dangerous lives. The CCN BEC will train and employ former sex workers, and at the same time provide maintenance services for bicycles used by CCN home-based care volunteers. Additional income will be used to help other sex workers get off the streets.