Lifestyle

Retired Prostitutes Open Sex College To Help Younger Sex Workers Learn The Business

by Alexia LaFata

Everyone deserves a happy, fulfilling retirement. Even sex workers. And these retired prostitutes in Zimbabwe opened a "college of sex" to teach a new crop of sex workers about reproductive health, safe sex and tools they need to thrive in the industry.

Sex work is not exactly criminalized in Zimbabwe, but it's illegal to run a brothel or profit from prostitution.

It's difficult to be found guilty under federal legislation in Zimbabwe that governs prostitution, so lots of local and criminal laws are applied to deter girls from pursuing sex work. This new college of sex, however, is here to help.

Zimbabwe sex worker Lima Mankarankara, 66, and her peers have a "consultancy service" for young sex workers in the area and teach them "how to handle clients well and the proper use of condoms." The consulting is done in Mankarankara's "desolate thatched hut with cracked walls."

The younger girls don't mind the less-than-ideal surroundings.

Mankarankara said,

Men take advantage of girls, so this is a way of making sure the girls stay safe and avoid unwanted babies while getting a little something for ourselves.

The younger girls give food or money to show their appreciation to their elders.

Mankarankara and three other retired sex workers run the organization and provide the girls with pregnancy test kits, condoms, sanitation and more. 

A lot of girls are underage -- some as young as 12 -- so older women give them condoms and other materials they can't get themselves.

via Times Live, Photo Courtesy: Tumblr