Could money be a priority before health?

File picture of a commercial sex worker

Stacey Moyo* (25) is a workaholic and residents at Tshabalala suburb in Bulawayo. She works from dusk to dawn. Stacey is a commercial sex worker. She uses sex to earn a living. As the sole breadwinner at home, she is forced with the responsibility of making sure that all needs at home are well taken care of.

Before Stacey took over as the sole breadwinner, her father Phillip Moyo* (53) was retrenched while working as a fitter at the National Blankets of Zimbabwe. National Blankets, located at Khami Road has so far retrenched a total of 280 workers. Since then, Phillip hasn't been any successful in acquiring a job.

Stacey started prostituting at the age of 21 and by then, clients were not hard to come by because she was still young. As she got older, Stacey had to adopt new tactics to face up with the guerrilla clients who are against the use of condoms. At first, she refused but as things got tougher at home, she ended up giving in. This was so mainly because clients that would go for unprotected sex paid more ranging from $50 to $200 while the usual round went for $20 per session.

Strangely, the way she gave in, was odd. Stacey uses a female condom the whole night. “What I do is that, I ware on the condom at around 6pm before I leave for work at 9pm. By the time I get to my regular spots, the temperatures would have warmed up everything to the extent that one cannot tell the difference. 

File picture of a female condom

"So when I am approached by the clients that want to pay for unprotected sex, we just do it, and I get my money. At the end of it all, I would have serviced about 5 to 8 clients who prefer dry sex with one condom that night, without them even realising it. The first client is the safest because the condom by then would be still fresh. The rest of the clients that come later are the ones that could be at risk as they are exposed to the previous clients semen. They all ejaculate it the same condom by the way," said Stacey showing no remorse.

Stacey is still HIV negative and says she will continue with the practice. “A friend of mine who is also a commercial sex worker advised me to do so because it prevents me from getting HIV from clients. I test regularly after every two months. When I last in February, I was negative and I am looking forward to my next test in April,” she said confidently. 

In summation, contrary to popular belief, Stacey's story shows that the spread of HIV is not solely perpetuated by commercial sex workers. as the name implies, the job description of a sex worker is to give sex for money. What happens during the transaction is not of priority as long as the provider of the service is kept clean and safe in the process.

The above testimony also dismisses male chauvinistic belief that a prostitute is the safest person to have random sex with. 

In the drive to combat HIV/AIDS, random sex tendencies should be stopped. People should at least try to stick to one partner at a time.

Let's keep the promise!

N/B: * not real name