Kakunawe Shinana
10 April 2008
Windhoek — THERE are about 500 sex workers operating in Oshikango and the surrounding villages, revealed a baseline study conducted to investigate sexual exploitation and women and child trafficking at the border town and surrounding Ohangwena areas.
The study, whose results were released on Friday, was conducted by the Namibia Social Marketing (Nasoma) programme with financial support from Unicef.
It found that poverty and unemployment were the main reasons why women and children as young as nine years old became involved in prostitution.
Out of a total of 151 respondents interviewed, 141 are sex workers at Oshikango whose customers are mainly truck drivers.
Of these, 25 are children under the age of 18.
Sex workers are extremely vulnerable to HIV infection, and the study found that they know little about sexually transmitted diseases and their symptoms.
No statistics could be gathered on trafficking of women and children, but evidence suggested that it does occur in Namibia.
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