The Nehemiah AIDS Relief Project’s mission is to provide Christ’s hope to communities in Bulawayo and beyond in order to create a compassionate and caring, HIV/AIDS-free society in the city of Bulawayo and beyond. This is just as needed now as almost twenty years later Zimbabwe continues to face a staggering HIV prevalence rate with 15.3% of women and 10.2% of men living with HIV (ZIMPHIA, 2020).
The Shining Star Project
acet UK and the Nehemiah Project partner together through the Shining Star Project, which seeks to bring hope and healing to women and girls engaged in sex work in Bulawayo and the rural locations of Hwange and Plumtree. Living in poverty with little education or skills to draw upon, women resort to sex work to provide for their family’s basic needs. They are particularly at risk of HIV and STI transmission because this economic necessity and sexual and gender-based violence makes it hard for them to negotiate safer sexual practices and access quality healthcare.
In an innovative model unique in Zimbabwe, the Nehemiah Project address the social stigma attached to sex workers by working with local churches to wholeheartedly welcome the Shining Star ladies into their church family. After the amazing success of the Bulawayo programme, the team now mentor and provide practical support to churches in other locations who have a heart to reach out to sex workers and change community attitudes towards them.
Shining Star transformative activities:
- Peer education training which helps reach more women and girls in sex work with key sexual and reproductive health messages.
- Addressing sexual and gender-based violence through legal workshops for peer educators and outreach to men in sex work hotspots.
- Vocational and business training and coaching.
- Discipleship and life skills programmes to provide opportunities to explore God’s love, build relationships, and grow in confidence.
- Teen mum programme, providing parenting mentorship.
- Outreach to young people in universities.
Through these activities, around 90 precious ladies a year are being armed with knowledge and skills that allow them to be financially independent, and they are empowered to take the courageous step of leaving the sex trade.
The Nehemiah Project team:
The project director, Rumbie, is dedicated to transforming the lives of vulnerable girls and women and has been key in rolling out the Shining Star project to new areas and partnering with the local government in Bulawayo.
They have projects in 4 areas: Bulawayo, Hwange, Gwanda, and Plumtree.
The class of 2023
In Zimbabwe, women are marginalized and disadvantaged because of their gender, especially if they are living with HIV and in poverty. Social-economic injustice has forced many into sex work, because it seems to be their only way of survival.
Each year, your support enables the Shining Star project to recruit a new group of these ladies and train them as sexual health peer educators, so they can empower their peers with knowledge that will help protect them from HIV, STIs and gender-based violence.
Your support also helps provide the Shining Star ladies with business and vocational training, helping them create pathways out of sex work, make positive changes in their lives and address the issues and challenges they face. Read more.
Zimbabwe: Shining Stars
The Shining Star team visit red light districts to speak to women who are engaged in the sex trade about joining the Shining Star programme as Peer Educators.
78 ladies from Bulawayo, Plumtree, Gwanda, and Hwange desired to change their lives and decided to join this year.
The ladies have embarked on this year-long programme, which provides training workshops to learn about leadership, communication skills and sexually transmitted infections including HIV. Read more
Outreach with men in Zimbabwe
You may be now very familiar with the main focus of our Zimbabwean partner Nehemiah Project’s Shining Star programme. Their mission is to empower girls and women, who have been driven to sex work, to be in control of their health and to be equipped to generate other income streams. This is achieved through training the ladies as sexual health peer educators and in vocational and business skills.
But did you know that an important strand of the Shining Star programme is their outreach with men? Read more
Holistic support in Zimbabwe
Imagine being so desperate for food that you say ‘yes’ to having sex with a stranger in return for some tomatoes and beans.
Tragically, this scenario is a grim reality for many girls and women in Zimbabwe, where the economy continues to crash, unemployment is staggeringly high, and in August, inflation rose to a mind-boggling 285%.
It is in this context that girls and women are feeling they have no option but to sell sex to survive. Read more
Zimbabwe - Ebi's story
A new cohort of 91 girls and women engaged in sex work have joined the Shining Star program this year as peer educators.
The ladies received training in sexual health, business and vocational skills, report writing, legal rights and positive parenting, as well as counselling and support for family planning services, HIV testing, and cervical cancer screening.
They in turn have already reached 1,594 of their peers with vital sexual health information.
36-year-old mother of 4, Ebi, tells her story: Read more
The Shining Star family, Zimbabwe
An important aspect of Shining Star’s model is its welcoming and family-style dynamic. As well as training on sexual health, vocational skills and business skills, and monthly meetings to share and report back on their outreach, the peer educators also take part in team-building exercises – and have the opportunity to attend an annual weekend camp. Read more