NEWS: BENN NEWSPress Release: Australia’s Governor General launches new bicycle shop to empower former sex workers
event on Flickr.19/03/2009: Her Excellency the Governor General of Australia, Mrs Quentin Bryce, who is currently touring several African countries, will launch a new community-based bicycle shop at the Council of Churches in Namibia in Katutura this afternoon.
The shop is an initiative of the Bicycling Empowerment Network Namibia (BEN Namibia), which implemented it in partnership with the King’s Daughters, an organisation that provides counselling, rehabilitation, support, vocational training and work placements for former commercial sex workers. The King’s Daughters Bicycle Shop will be run by six women who are members of the organisation. The women have received training in bicycle mechanics and project management to prepare them to run it
The shop, which is run out of a shipping container, will sell refurbished second hand bicycles, and provide maintenance and repair services to the public. Income generated will be used to employ the women running the shop and sustain the shop’s operations, with profits used to support other King’s Daughters initiatives.
Prostitution is illegal in Namibia, and sex workers face violence from clients, a high risk of contracting HIV and abuse by police. Most sex workers enter the trade out of desperation caused by poverty, and often turn to alcohol and drugs to cope with the stress. The King’s Daughters bicycle shop will provide positive new opportunities and help reduce stigma faced by former sex workers in gaining conventional employment.
AusAID, the Australian development agency, is supporting part of the costs of the project, and also recently announced that it will support similar BEN Namibia projects in Singalamwe (Caprivi region), Okatana (6km north of Oshakati), Mile 10 (Kavango region) and Gobabis.
The project is also supported by the Council of Churches in Namibia, which provided the site for the project, Bicycles for Humanity Ottawa (Canada), which collected and shipped the container and initial stock of bicycles, and Lush cosmetics.
‘It is a great day for BEN Namibia,’ said Managing Director, Michael Linke ‘Not only are we launching a project to be run by six wonderful and inspiring women, but we’re receiving a visit from another inspiring woman, the Governor General of my home country, who for years has worked tirelessly for equal rights for Australian women.’
The Governor General will be accompanied by her husband Mr Michael Bryce, Deputy Prime Minister Dr Libertina Amathila and Minister for Gender Equality and Child Welfare, Marlene Mungunda.
For more information, please contact Michael Linke, 081 295 6281, michael@benbikes.org.za
