THE Young Women's Christian Association (YWCA) will be seeking out prostitutes in order to hear from them.

The organisation wants to hear from marginalised women and, says president of the organisation Marilyn Rice-Bowen, these women have a story to tell.

She was speaking to the DAILY NATION yesterday following a breakfast, at the Main Guard, Garrison, organised under the theme Listen To She Who Speaks:Women Leading Change.

Rice-Bowen said the YWCA has worked with victims of domestic violence and they have programmes in place to deal with it.

"They told their stories in tears and we heard it; so we have put measures in place for them. What we want to do as a women's movement is that we want to go into the areas where the prostitutes are.

"We want to hear their stories and go in and assist them because there is some area in their life that I think we can respond to in a positive way," Rice-Bowen said.

The YWCA president said the objective of them was not to be judgemental but to understand what point they were at and how the organisation could assist them.

"As women we have never been desperate so we are not sure what we are going to do, and if you are desperate and there is no joyand you don't have a solid educational background what else is there to do?

One of those women out there on the street might be able to sew but nobody ever encouraged her and said if you sew we will find a market for you.

"We have to go and find out what their strengths are because they do have strengths," she added.

Rice-Bowen admitted that there were some women who preferred the fast-track way to getting their material needs met and therefore got involved in the prostitution but others felt they had no choice.

She added that just as women in the olden days prioritised for them and their children, so too should this generation and, instead of buying that expensive outfit, and then not having meat and potatoes to put on their table, they need to put things in the right perspective. (WB)