Catholic priest offers support to Namibian sex workers

-21/10/06

A Roman Catholic pries


Catholic priest offers support to Namibian sex workers

-21/10/06

A Roman Catholic priest who founded Namibia’s only day-care centre for prostitutes is working to improve their lot in the face of high rates of HIV and abhorrence of the sex trade by society – writes Rodrick Mukumbira for Ecumenical News International.

“These women are hated by many, but I have tried to give them dignity and the knowledge that there is life after the streets,” said Fr Herman Klein-Hitpass, the founder of Stand Together, the day-care centre based in Katutura, a Windhoek suburb that was once a township only for black people.

Fr Klein-Hitpass founded Stand Together in 1995. Supported by donations from parishes in Germany, he has provided sex workers with “food, shelter and hope”. He said: “I try through bible studies to get them off the streets, but everything nowadays centres on money. You help them today, and tomorrow they are back on the streets.” He said he also provides them with condoms.

No statistics exist about the number of sex workers in Namibia, but the day-care centre has a membership of 1275, Klein-Hitpass said, 75 per cent of whom are HIV positive.

The Legal Assistance Centre (LAC), an NGO that has reached out to sex workers since 2000, estimates that the southern African country of nearly 2 million people has more than 20 000 prostitutes plying their trade in major urban centres.

Through Stand Together, sex workers have questioned why government money meant for HIV/AIDS never finds its way to the organisation. They have also taken the government to task about the absence of projects to help them make a transition to a better life.

“Poverty is playing a big factor,” explained Diane Hubbard from the LAC. She cites the 2005 UN Human Development Report that says 35 per cent of Namibia’s population live below the poverty line of US a day. Unemployment stands at 36.7 per cent, according to the Namibia Labour Force Survey 2004 released in May.

“Most are poor and illiterate and their chances of finding a job are slim,” said Hubbard.

But sex workers are lumped along with homosexuals as persons abhorred by leading politicians in Namibia. Former president Sam Nujoma is on record as saying, “The Republic of Namibia does not allow prostitution, homosexuality [or] lesbianism.”

A 2001 attempt in Parliament by former health minister Libertina Amathila for prostitution to be legalised as a means of stemming the spread of HIV came to nothing. But Hubbard’s centre has taken up the campaign. “Decriminalisation does not necessarily represent approval of the trade by Namibian society,” she said.

Recent health ministry figures put HIV prevalence in Namibia’s population at slightly more than 21 per cent.

With acknowledgements to ENI. Ecumenical News International is jointly sponsored by the World Council of Churches, the Lutheran World Federation, the World Alliance of Reformed Churches, and the Conference of European Churches.


Catholic priest offers support to Namibian sex workers

-21/10/06

A Roman Catholic priest who founded Namibia’s only day-care centre for prostitutes is working to improve their lot in the face of high rates of HIV and abhorrence of the sex trade by society – writes Rodrick Mukumbira for Ecumenical News International.

“These women are hated by many, but I have tried to give them dignity and the knowledge that there is life after the streets,” said Fr Herman Klein-Hitpass, the founder of Stand Together, the day-care centre based in Katutura, a Windhoek suburb that was once a township only for black people.

Fr Klein-Hitpass founded Stand Together in 1995. Supported by donations from parishes in Germany, he has provided sex workers with “food, shelter and hope”. He said: “I try through bible studies to get them off the streets, but everything nowadays centres on money. You help them today, and tomorrow they are back on the streets.” He said he also provides them with condoms.

No statistics exist about the number of sex workers in Namibia, but the day-care centre has a membership of 1275, Klein-Hitpass said, 75 per cent of whom are HIV positive.

The Legal Assistance Centre (LAC), an NGO that has reached out to sex workers since 2000, estimates that the southern African country of nearly 2 million people has more than 20 000 prostitutes plying their trade in major urban centres.

Through Stand Together, sex workers have questioned why government money meant for HIV/AIDS never finds its way to the organisation. They have also taken the government to task about the absence of projects to help them make a transition to a better life.

“Poverty is playing a big factor,” explained Diane Hubbard from the LAC. She cites the 2005 UN Human Development Report that says 35 per cent of Namibia’s population live below the poverty line of US a day. Unemployment stands at 36.7 per cent, according to the Namibia Labour Force Survey 2004 released in May.

“Most are poor and illiterate and their chances of finding a job are slim,” said Hubbard.

But sex workers are lumped along with homosexuals as persons abhorred by leading politicians in Namibia. Former president Sam Nujoma is on record as saying, “The Republic of Namibia does not allow prostitution, homosexuality [or] lesbianism.”

A 2001 attempt in Parliament by former health minister Libertina Amathila for prostitution to be legalised as a means of stemming the spread of HIV came to nothing. But Hubbard’s centre has taken up the campaign. “Decriminalisation does not necessarily represent approval of the trade by Namibian society,” she said.

Recent health ministry figures put HIV prevalence in Namibia’s population at slightly more than 21 per cent.

With acknowledgements to ENI. Ecumenical News International is jointly sponsored by the World Council of Churches, the Lutheran World Federation, the World Alliance of Reformed Churches, and the Conference of European Churches.