Accra, Aug. 18, GNA - About 225 prostitutes who operate at various locations in the Accra metropolis say they will give up the world's oldest profession if they are given alternative livelihood to support them and their dependants.

"My Sister, it is not that I like what I am doing here; it is only because life has become rather unbearable and a matter of survival. Look, I am ready to quit this 'Ashawo' (prostitution) business even today, I mean, right now if I can be guaranteed an alternative. I swear, I will quit," Akua, a 20 year-old prostitute, told the Ghana News Agency (GNA) in an interview in Accra at the weekend. The prostitutes, whose ages are between 14 and 35 years, appealed to government and civil society organisations to offer them decent jobs to enable them to quit saying "we are only victims of circumstances". The prostitutes come from different backgrounds and across various regions of Ghana. There are others who are also from neighbouring countries such as Nigeria, Togo and Cote d'Ivoire. They operate at the Kwame Nkrumah Circle, Akufo-Addo Circle and the Italian Embassy.

The prostitutes were speaking when 54 missionaries and evangelists of the Good News Evangelical Mission International (GONEMI) took the message of salvation to them. The four-hour evangelism exercise was to climax their "mission week" celebrations.

Speaking to the GNA, the Reverend Godson King Akpalu, General Overseer of GONEMI, said the church took the challenge to evangelise the prostitutes during their mission week celebration because they realized that what the prostitutes needed most was love and support and not condemnation and maltreatment.

"The data provided by these our unfortunate sisters indicate that some of them are professionals but due to the lack of jobs, they have resorted to prostitution to just put body and soul together," he said. "It will even interest you to know that one of them is a professional journalist who could not find a job and had to enter the old age profession."

Rev. Akpalu said the church would support all those who would receive Jesus Christ as their Lord and personal saviour and willingly give up prostitution.

"Those who would like to go back to school would be supported as well as those who want to learn any trade of their choice." Rev. Akpalu said the church would put up a rehabilitation centre to cater for the numerous people currently receiving support. It would embrace new ones ranging from drug addicts, prostitutes, alcoholics, armed robbers and all other social misfits. He expressed regret about the situation where most churches neglected the people who needed their services most saying "we have taken up the challenge and we are appealing to all Christians to come and support this worthy cause". Rev. Akpalu appealed to the government and all well meaning Ghanaians and international philanthropists to help in the establishment of the rehabilitation centre. "It is only when there are no such people in our midst that Ghana would become the paradise that we all want it to be," he said.