A local NGO, Voice of Community Organisation Rwanda, Friday launched a project to teach 120 female sex workers sewing skills. 

Beneficiaries will come from Kicukiro and Nyarugenge districts in Kigali City.

The project that will be funded by the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) was launched at Kicukiro District headquarters.

Speaking during the launch, Innocent Musore, the organisation’s coordinator, said the general objective was to gradually empower female sex workers drop the practice.

"From our findings, we noticed that those engaged in prostitution claim they have nowhere to start a new life; and it’s from this line that we want to give them these skills so that they can have a starting point if they leave the practice,” Musore said.

He observed that dealing with prostitution requires combined efforts in a well stipulated manner that enables those involved to willingly give up the vice.

Musore added that the project would also involve sensitisation campaigns to educate female sex workers on how best they can protect themselves against HIV.

"We intend to use education programmes, especially informing female sex workers of the negative effects related to their practice as a way of discouraging them as we believe that this will help us to contribute towards preventing new HIV infections,” he said.  

Clotilde Mukamanzi, the coordinator of the Kicukiro District Aids Control Committee (CDLS), said the project will supplement efforts in the two districts in fighting HIV/AIDS.

"From our records, we established that in the district we have at least 2,851 female sex workers and although we are trying to do our best to empower them, there is need for development partners to come on board,” Mukamanzi said.

She called on more partners to join the fight, saying unprotected sex among sex workers was a big risk for new HIV infection. 

Last year, Rwanda Biomedical Centre (RBC) released a report that indicated that at least 51 percent of sex workers in the country are infected with HIV.

The report attributed the high HIV prevalence among sex workers to high exposure to unprotected sex with multiple partners.

One of the female sex workers who spoke to The Sunday Times on conditions of anonymity said that she no longer engages in unprotected sex after taking part in various HIV campaigns. 

"I have also been educating my fellow sex workers to avoid it however much a man offers. I am convinced that a man who decides to have unprotected sex with a prostitute must be infected with HIV,” she noted.