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Nicaragua prostitutes study law to help others in trouble

เผยแพร่:   โดย: MGR Online


Cony's usual work clothes are tight-fitting outfits that show off her curves as she waits for clients at the bar.

AFP

But today she has put on a modest flower-print dress to attend her first law class, one of 60 sex workers who are training to become volunteer facilitators in the Nicaraguan justice system.
Cony -- short for Concepcion Jarquin -- learned early on to survive in a hostile world, and now hopes to use her street sense to help others defend themselves.
Raped by a neighbor at age six, she dropped out of school in shame and left home to escape the rebukes of her mother, who blamed her for what happened.
Forty years and countless humiliations later, this lively, smiling woman is studying part-time in a conference room at the Supreme Court to learn the basics of the Nicaraguan civil and criminal codes.
She will then be sworn in to act as a liaison between residents of her impoverished neighborhood and an often inaccessible justice system.
The free, year-long course, which meets once every two months, was organized by the Sunflowers Sex Workers Association, a group set up three years ago to help prostitutes get medical care and professional training.
It is part of a broader initiative that has trained 4,300 facilitators across Nicaragua in the past 17 years to mediate in neighborhood conflicts -- arguments between neighbors, disputes over money, etc. -- or get help from support groups or the police in more serious cases.
The program has been so successful at reducing the caseload of the overburdened court system that eight other Latin American countries have adopted it.
But this is the first time sex workers are taking part.
For Cony, it is a chance to serve her community and regain some of the dignity lost doing her other job.
Nicaragua, a country of six million people, has some 14,000 prostitutes.
Nicaragua prostitutes study law to help others in trouble
Nicaragua prostitutes study law to help others in trouble
Nicaragua prostitutes study law to help others in trouble
Nicaragua prostitutes study law to help others in trouble
Nicaragua prostitutes study law to help others in trouble
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