Search
  1. Home
  2. Southern Africa
  3. Lesotho

Growing garment industry fuels AIDS concerns

    JOHANNESBURG
    An international development agency on Monday said Lesotho's growing garment industry was causing concern over the impact of HIV/AIDS on people arriving from rural areas in search of work. CARE international's Lesotho project manager, Gillian Forrest, said young women were particularly vulnerable because of the "many transactions around sex" in the cities. "There are huge queues for jobs each day. Women are very vulnerable and can get sucked into the commercial sex trade," Forrest told the UN news service PlusNews. A Private Sector Coalition against HIV/AIDS (PSCAAL), launched last year, aimed to develop workplace HIV/AIDS policies, information resources, and voluntary counselling and testing facilities. "There is information and access to condoms, but when a guy says he will pay more money for sex without a condom, they say 'yes', because they need money to survive," Forrest explained.

    This article was produced by IRIN News while it was part of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Please send queries on copyright or liability to the UN. For more information: https://shop.un.org/rights-permissions

    Share this article

    Our ability to deliver compelling, field-based reporting on humanitarian crises rests on a few key principles: deep expertise, an unwavering commitment to amplifying affected voices, and a belief in the power of independent journalism to drive real change.

    We need your help to sustain and expand our work. Your donation will support our unique approach to journalism, helping fund everything from field-based investigations to the innovative storytelling that ensures marginalised voices are heard.

    Please consider joining our membership programme. Together, we can continue to make a meaningful impact on how the world responds to crises.

    Become a member of The New Humanitarian

    Support our journalism and become more involved in our community. Help us deliver informative, accessible, independent journalism that you can trust and provides accountability to the millions of people affected by crises worldwide.

    Join