Reality TV show offers prostitutes chance at new life
In Zambia, the new TV reality show 'Ready for Marriage' offers sex workers a chance at marriage and an opportunity to turn their lives around.
Story from PRI's The World. Use audio player above to listen to full report.
The Zambian reality TV show "Ready for Marriage" promises a chance at marriage for women looking to escape the sex industry. Eighteen sex workers are recruited from nine different provinces across the country to compete for the chance to win $9,000 and what the producers call a "second chance in life". The show also throws in an all expenses paid wedding.
The trailer for the current season:
"Movie TV and Africa Unite TV present the grand reality show, the Ready For Marriage program. Are you a young lady aged between 18-35 years and do you work as a prostitute, a hooker, or sex worker, or whatever you call yourself? And are you interested in changing your life around, are you interested in settling down to lead a decent and respectable and responsible life? Here is a super brilliant and bright opportunity ...."
The BBC's Mutuna Chanda in Lusaka says the tv show may sound a little condescending, but it could actually help some women: "In a way it is offering them a chance, a chance at life. You would be interested to know that even those who are voted out of the show will be given between 1,000 and 1,400 dollars, they will also be given full-time jobs, so they're more or less being given a second chance at life."
Unlike the women on The Bachelorette, the Zambian contestants don't give out roses to a swarm of attractive bachelors. And the winner isn't guaranteed a marriage proposal.
Read more at TheWorld.org.
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