Thomson Reuters Foundation is a charity registered in England and Wales registration number: About Thomson Reuters Foundation. Newsletter sign up:. A high volume of traffic and a low cost of living has made Mpulungu, on Lake Tanganyika, Zambia's only port, an attractive destination for sex workers. Every two weeks, a ferry travels the length of the lake to Burundi and returns via Tanzania to Zambia, bringing traders, backpackers, overlanders and migrants, while the fishing industry draws businessmen and truckers from across the country and neighbouring states.
Its broken streets are lined with bars that never seem to close. However, unofficial estimates say prevalence in Mpulungu is much higher. Transport hub Being a transit hub, Kaluba said, probably contributed to the level of HIV infection in the ramshackle northern town because many sex workers migrated there, especially from the copper and coal mining towns of Copperbelt Province after the global slowdown and the fall of commodity prices in impacted negatively on the country's resource-based economy.
Kaluba said the socially marketed condoms were preferred, as "sex is prestigious," and the packaging and presentation added to the currency of such condoms. People talk too much and it's a small town [of about 25,], so I don't really go with local men," Miriam, 23, a sex worker from the capital, Lusaka, told IRIN.
It is not our wish to do this, but I don't feel bad. We do what we do and even married women go out and sleep with other men [for extra income]. We are proud, and we need to make money to live," she said. Unlike her two friends Christabelle, 27, and Charity 28, also sex workers, Miriam completed school but drifted into sex work after two or three years of unemployment.
All three have boyfriends who travel from Ndola, Kabwe and Lusaka about once a month to spend a few days in Mpulungu. One is a truck driver and the other two are fish buyers. All three said they all used condoms - as "we care about our lives" - including with their boyfriends. Most sex workers staked out their workplace. The women frequented a lakeside bar and if they ventured into other bars "we are chased out" by other sex workers, they told IRIN. She averaged two or three clients a week and her boyfriend always brought her presents, such as furniture and electronic goods, when he visited.
