• MOVE Forward Project
• The ASA-project
• Samenwerking UNFPA
• Gezond en sterk in Sekswerk
  
  

The Dutch government made a grant available for Dutch NGO’s and their local partner organisations who work with sex workers in development countries. This grant aims to enlarge career development opportunities for sex workers who voluntarily want to withdraw from sex work.

Click here for the 'Position Paper'.
Click here for the final Report.

World wide, sex work is often criminalized and surrounded by stigma and discrimination. This places sex workers in a marginalized position, which makes them more vulnerable to STD’s and HIV. Empowerment of sex workers and sex worker-friendly services are essential to improve their position. Enlarging career development opportunities is a strong way of empowerment. Establishing this kind of programmes for sex workers is not a simple task and there is no ‘one fits all-solution’ at hand. Contextual determinants like poverty, lack of alternatives, stigma and discrimination are deep-rooted factors that hinder sex workers to change their careers.

The sex work projects-team of STI-AIDS Netherlands (SANL) has received part of the grant for the MOVE Forward project. This project aims to roll out career development projects in 4 countries: Egypt Uganda Vietnamr and Macedonia, all of which are partner countries of the Dutch ministry of Foreign Affairs. The projects will consist of two components: a thorough needs assessment and a pilot project.
Through the needs assessments the voices of sex workers will be heard, together with the voices of other important players in the local field of sex work, such as local NGO’s, health professionals and governmental institutions.
The pilot projects will be implemented in all 4 participating countries through local partner organisations. The content of the pilots can very from a wide range of activities. In this way SANL attempts to imbed the pilots in the local context as best as possible.

The MOVE Forward project of SANL started in September 2009 until April 2011. The pilot projects must be implemented by partner organisations between December 2009 and April 2011.

The objectives of the MOVE Forward project are:
1) To document best practices, contextual determinants and (pre)conditions of career development programs for sex workers in Egypt, Uganda, Vietnam Macedonia.
2) To identify the potential effects (both favourable and adverse) on the position of sex workers of the proposed career development programs for sex workers.
3) To identify appropriate intervention methods to enhance empowerment of sex workers through career development programmes.
4) To implement pilot projects to improve career development opportunities for sex workers. SANL will focus on the empowerment of sex workers and on improving sex worker-friendly services in a way that career development strategies can be imbedded in a good local structure.

The outcome of the pilots will enhance the MOVE Forward project with valuable information to determine the preconditions of career development programmes.

1) Desk Study: SANL will conduct a study on the career development projects that already have been initiated, to gain better insights in lessons learnt in the past.
2) Needs Assessment Study: The central research question of the needs assessment will be: what (pre)conditions are needed for development and implementation of sustainable programmes that aim to support sex workers and their career development in Egypt, Uganda, Vietnam and Macedonia? After a mapping session, sex workers as well as other important social players will be consulted within the needs assessment.
3) Pilot Projects In line with the needs assessment, pilot projects will be implemented by relevant stakeholders, which could be local NGO’s as well as UN agencies.
4) Final evaluation report Final evaluation report including findings of the needs assessment and the pilots.

The following outputs can be expected from the project:

• Improved understanding of local programmes that aim to empower sex workers through career development programmes.
• Documented best practises and (pre)conditions of career development programmes.
• Capacity of local NGO’s and other relevant institutions are strengthened where needed to increase the success of career development programmes and sex worker-friendly services.
• Pilot projects have been developed and implemented, through which sex workers have better opportunities to further develop their careers.

More information: Marieke Ridder,mridder@soaaids.nl

‘A Step Ahead, towards health and social care for sex workers’ in Serbia.
Project time: 1 June 2008- 31st May 2011
Funded by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, MATRA programme

POP
The Power of Prevention (POP) project from 2004 till 2007 created the right climate to continue with activities in this region. The POP project made it possible to continue with new intervention strategies for the sex workers in Serbia. During the POP project over one hundred medical staffmembers have been trained to be sex worker friendly. During the ASA project the same staffmembers will be part of the project again.

Challenges
Some of the key problems Serbia is still facing, are:

• Despite the fact that sex workers are recognized as a vulnerable group with its defined needs (in certain documents related to health policy and health care), there are only slight improvements made in satisfying those needs.
  
  
• Criminalisation according to valid laws, high degree of social stigmatisation, discrimination within any system – make the position sex workers utterly regrettable.
  
  
• The official response to the problem is inadequate. Certain forms of sex work, such as indoor services, are completely out of bounds for any kind of prevention activities.
  
  
• All activities for sex workers are concentrated predominantly in Belgrade.
  
  

Drop-in and Outreach
During the ASA project a drop-in centre for sex workers will be realised. In this drop-in centre, an integral approach in providing health and social care at local level will be secured. Also an organised and functional form of inter-institutional co-operation is being developed and implemented between the health and social sector.
Outreach workers will retain their role as ‘bridges’ between official services and sex workers, and will expand their work to other areas. They will also mobilize outreach workers in Novi Pazar, in the latter part of the project.
One of the overall objectives of the project is to put health and social protection for sex workers on the agenda for change and to reform social and health care systems.

For more information on the project please contact:

• Mrs Marieke Ridder-Wiskerke
  Programme manager sex work projects
  mridder@soaaids.n

In 2008 is het programma prostitutie van Soa Aids Nederland een samenwerkingsovereenkomst aangegaan met UNFPA.
Soa Aids Nederland heeft in opdracht van de UNFPA een train-de-trainer en een guideline voor peer-education in sexwork ontwikkeld. Daarnaast heeft zij trainingen gegeven in diverse landen en neemt actief deel aan beleidszaken rondom prostitutie wereldwijd.
Ook wordt het programma gevraagd voor advies en vindt er tweejaarlijks een trainingsweek plaats in Nederland, waarin werken in de prostitutie in Nederland centraal staat.

‘Gezond en sterk in sekswerk’ richt zich op de bevordering van de gezondheid van prostituees. Het project is een samenwerking tussen de GGD Amsterdam, GGD Rotterdam e.o., GGD Twente, SHOP (Stichting Hulpverlening en Opvang) Den Haag, het PIC (Prostitutie Informatie Centrum) in Den Haag en Soa Aids Nederland.

De gezondheidssituatie van prostituees hangt nauw samen met hun (gebrek aan) weerbaarheid en hun (onderhandelings)positie ten opzichte van exploitanten, klanten en/of partner. Verschillende interventies zijn erop gericht de weerbaarheid te vergroten:

• Het PIC in Amsterdam organiseert onder andere fysieke weerbaarheids trainingen.
  
  
• De GGD Amsterdam organiseert een taalcursus Nederlands voor migrantenprostituees met thema's als anatomie van het lichaam en (seksuele) gezondheid.
  
  
• De GGD Rotterdam biedt seksuologische hulpverlening aan prostituees en organiseert gespreksgroepen rond seksualiteitsbeleving en empowerment.
  
  
• SHOP in Den Haag organiseert bijeenkomsten met jonge prostituees over de relatie met hun partner en geeft prostituees tijdens veldwerk informatie over hun rechten en plichten.
  
  
• De GGD Twente geeft een serie trainingen met als thema's weerbaarheid en onderhandelingsvaardigheid.
  Er wordt informatiemateriaal ontwikkeld voor prostituees over weerbaarheid en gezondheid.
  
  
• Er wordt een manual ontwikkeld met methodieken ter bevordering van de weerbaarheid en gezondheid bij prostituees.

Het project is inmiddels afgerond en wordt op dit moment nog in een aantal plaatsen in Nederland voortgezet.
Ook worden delen uit het project gebruikt bij het veldwerk.