There has been an increase in the number of commercial sex workers in the country.

As this industry has been discovered to be one of the vehicles for the spread of HIV, some have found ways to use it to fight the spread of the virus.

In Palapye, in the central district, the community has joined forces with institutions such as the African Comprehensive HIV/AIDS Partnerships (ACHAP); establishing the Tsholofelo-Hope Project, aimed at fighting HIV within the commercial sex workers' population.

Project leader, Monica Kaisa, said that they cover the Serowe/Palapye region. In addition, Kaisa said they have 23 more villages in the district, at which they have seconded 19 field officers to reach out to the sex workers.

The project is not only aimed at commercial sex workers. Some of the project facilitators reach out to truck drivers, who are known to be the best customers of the commercial sex workers.

Moyangwa Baboloki is the outreach officer at the Tsholofelo-Hope Center. She explained that their goal was to test as many truck drivers as possible, as well as offer them condoms. They visit the truck drivers where they usually park for the night, counsel and test them, and those positive with HIV or any other STD are referred to clinics

Initially, there was resistance among the truck drivers, said Baboloki.

"With time they realised that we were there to help. Though we have reached out to drivers from countries like Zimbabwe, Namibia and Nigeria we are still having a problem with the Afrikaaners (from South Africa) who still don't want anything to do with us," she said.

Baboloki added that most of their clients cite poverty as the main factor that leads them to engage in the oldest trade. Also, they have discovered that contributing to the spread of the virus, is the fact that sex workers have no control over condom usage, as it is dictated by the sex buyers. More and more, the situation is changing.