Ex-prostitutes open car wash

TWENTY-FOUR-YEAR-OLD Precious Philemon gazes into the air, her mind engrossed on something while her face spells despair.

Precious has survived from a gruelling experience of a failed marriage, and has now been left to take care of her young child alone.

In trying to bring food onto the table and take care of her only child, as desperate as she was, she resorted to one of the oldest professions in the world - prostitution.

Surviving from prostitution for almost half a decade, though to them it was lucrative business, Precious and her friend Eldah reached a point where they could no longer endure the profession.

Bidding farewell to the profession, the duo formed a carwash in Mbare's Matapi flats where they reside.

They took on board Precious' brother Marshal Philemon (21) and Kudzai Hatendi (22) married with two kids.

Clad in her orange work-suit as she finishes to wash one of the cars, Precious narrates how she decided to venture into the business.

"I had no qualifications and life was just too tough for me. I tried cross-border trading, but it was not profitable. Left with few options on how to make ends meet, I tried prostitution, but it was not profitable either. Eventually, I opted for this business of washing cars," Precious says.

Being a single parent of a Grade One child and also the breadwinner in her household, she says life is a struggle.

"Things were hard and I had to look for money to pay for my child's school fees as well as pay my rent. I later realised that car-washing was way better than going to the pubs and engaging into prostitution as it did not pay well," she narrates.

She adds: "I used to get money from my boyfriend who is a married man and we would go on drinking sprees with my friends, but I later realised that we would wake up the next morning broke. So I got motivated to save money and buy equipment for the carwash."

According to Precious, the group is experiencing a huge clientele base which comprises mainly commuter omnibuses, buses and private car owners.

"The prices vary according to the type of vehicle with buses being pegged at $15, commuter omnibuses costing $5 and small vehicles pegged at $3 and if it is a full house it gets to $5," Precious says.

Their daily collections are banked and the money is shared among the employees on a weekly basis.

"We calculate our weekly earnings and divide the money into half which caters for equipment maintenance, servicing and purchasing of detergents, while the other half is shared among the four of us as our weekly wages," Precious tells.

However, like any other businesses, Precious says hers has had its own share of problems.

"During the first days, many people felt threatened by our existence and at times we were forced to close as they suspected that our existence was politically-alligned," she narrates.

Pleased with the performance of the business, Precious hopes to expand her business into other residential areas.

"Our hope is to expand this business to other residential areas and work with young girls who would have faced similar situations like mine in life so that they realise that there are other ways to make a living other than prostitution. We would also hope to have agreements and arrangements with garage owners so that they lease us small spaces within their garages to set up our businesses," she says.

With the unemployment rate being pegged at just over 90%, a lot of school leavers are left jobless with nothing to sustain them.

The most affected is the girl child who is resorting to early marriages, crime and prostitution endangering their lives as they risk contracting the deadly HIV and Aids disease.