I came to South Africa seven years ago from Zimbabwe seeking greener pastures as my family history included poverty and abuse.nnFor almost a year I earned peanuts as a domestic worker when approached by girls who told me about getting quick and easy cash. Naturally I agreed to join them when I saw them living better lives from selling sex in Musina. I got sucked into this “hassle-free” business and had been in sex trade for a while before being introduced to Red Cross in Limpopo through their outreach programme.nnI was pregnant and continued to do sex work on her first encounter with SARCS. I stopped before giving birth but continued when my baby was born.nnI was educated through Prevention from Mother to Child (PMTCT) programme by the Red Cross health promoters. Fortunately, through this intervention my baby was born HIV negative.nnSARCS further engaged me to be a facilitator and encouraged me to help other pregnant women to change their lives during “mother to mother support” that is run at the Mogalakwena Clinic in Mokopane. This assisted me as I became a heath promoter/ support group facilitator with other girls who were recruited in order to try and change and to assist other sex workers by giving them condoms and providing psychosocial support through creative space platforms.nnTogether with the team, I successfully established a support group for sex workers which meet on a monthly basis on SARCS premises in LimpoponnSARCS offered me basic training and through the great relationship with the government, and was connected with the Department of Health (DoH) who equipped me with clinical training.nnI also refer other patients in need to DoH.nnSARCS has been my life saver!nnThank YounnRatizo
