It’s time to fund sex worker NGOs

A number of sex worker organisations across the globe are well organised, transparent and delivering services and advocacy to their community in ways that only sex workers can. Yet they are all too often excluded from funding. It’s time for governments, donors and grant bodies to show sex workers the money, writes Elena Jeffreys.

13 March 2011

The Scavenger

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon called for the decriminalisation of sex work in 2008 and again in 2009. Not only would this constitute a significant advance in the fight against the spread of HIV, but it would help prevent the trafficking of women and grant sex workers the kind of human rights they only enjoy at present in a small number of jurisdictions, such as New South Wales in Australia, and New Zealand.

I am an Australian sex worker and the President of Scarlet Alliance, the Australian Sex Workers Association, the peak body that represents 12 sex worker organisations in Australia. Together we have a combined outreach of more than 20,000 occasions of service a year.

We believe granting bodies, governments and donors should develop closer relationships with sex worker NGOs, and stop excluding them from funding.

We advocate at top level. A representative from the Scarlet Alliance sits on the Commonwealth Attorneys-General Roundtable on People Trafficking, and was part of the expert committees that put together the Australian National Strategies on HIV and Sexually Transmissible Infections, as well as our own sex worker publications such as the “little red book” on STI’s and HIV transmission.

‘Messenger Band’ Sings for the Voiceless

The Messenger Band (Photo: Rick Valenzuela)

Messenger Band members, from left: Vun Em, Hin Kunthea and Kun Sotheary

By Sok Khemara, VOA Khmer
Washington
14 October 2008

Click here to listen to the Khmer audio program

Click here to listen or download The Messenger Band songs

The Messenger Band, a group of female singers who speak of living conditions for many of Cambodia’s socially sidelined groups, is gaining in popularity, as Cambodians face high inflation and tough working conditions, even in a growing economy.

“There are a lot of problems that women as workers are facing, but they cannot speak out,” explained Vun Em, the band’s coordinator, as a guest on “Hello VOA.” “These songs come from the workers’ hearts, to tell the public what problems the workers have.”

The band, comprised of factory workers and initiated by the Womyn's Agenda for Change, has released one CD and performed in Hong Kong during a World Trade Organization meeting. The group calls itself “the first all female protest song folk singers in the history of Cambodia.”

Inspiration for their songs, which range from topics such as globalization, factories, drug abuse, domestic violence, and prostitution, come from speaking to people to “know the real situation,” Vun Em said.

Kun Sotheary, a member of the band who was also a guest on “Hello VOA,” said the two volumes of songs the band has produced were composed by workers from many different places, while the next songs will be composed by band members themselves.

“We will go to many places and continue to work with workers,” she said. “We are workers too.”

Love The Messenger Band? Listen to their albums at Womyn's Agenda for Change website

Phnom Penh (Cambodia), 14 September 2008. Garment workers from The Messenger Band gathered at the Womyn's Agenda for Change (WAC) office (Photo: John Vink/Magnum)

A long article about The Messenger Band in French appears on Monday's edition of Ka-Set (we hope to provide an English translation of this article soon).

Click here for WAC webpage containing the collection of The Messenger Band songs
(click on the "headphone symbol" to listen to each song, or click on "Kh" or "Eng" to read the lyric in Khmer or English)

Suffer from Privatization - The Messenger Band

Cambodians suffer deeply from the privatization policy instituted by Hun Sen's government. The Messenger Band provides their interpretation of the suffering by Cambodian people from this ill-advised policy.

Video produced by Womyn's Agenda for Change