You have full access to this open access article. The paper interrogates narratives of adolescent street girls of the Harare Central Business District, Zimbabwe, exiting commercial sex work. A qualitative research methodology punctuated by street ethnography was adopted to gather data for the paper. A feminist social work approach and empowerment theory were used to have a deeper understanding of the lives of these children. Research findings suggest that there were very few cases where adolescent street girls of Harare Central Business District were successfully exiting transactional sex.
There were varied and multiple reasons why they could not successfully exit commercial sex work. Some of them included addiction on commercial sex work, limited survival options outside commercial sex work, peer pressure, street subculture, and substance abuse. The paper concludes by advocating and lobbying key stakeholders such as the Government of Zimbabwe to improve the lives of children in street situations through provision of social protection mechanisms.
The article problematises the reasons why exiting commercial sex work is difficult among the adolescent street girls of the Harare Central Business District, Zimbabwe. Exiting commercial sex work is a complex process Baker et al. Scholars such as Aptekar and Stoecklin observed that one in every three homeless girls in American cities was trading in sex for survival.
In Lukasa, Zambia, some street girls survive through selling sex to their fellow street boys and other people Mtonga, Similarly in Harare, Zimbabwe, some of the streets girls also raised money for buying basic needs such as food, clothes, and medical care through selling sex Chikoko, , ; Mhizha, ; Ruparanganda, ; Wakatama, Women who exchange sex for money or goods also known as female sex workers are at an increased risk of experiencing violence and other negative health consequences Carlson et al.
There is limited academic literature interrogating the reasons why the adolescent street girls of Harare Central Business District, Zimbabwe, were failing to exit commercial sex work. Therefore, there is a need for an urgent updated study that provides insights on the reasons why the adolescent street girls were finding it difficult to exit commercial sex.
