Implementing Comprehensive HIV/STI Programmes with Sex Workers Implementing Comprehensive HIV/STI Programmes with | Page 33

1 Community Empowerment different sex work communities have different needs and challenges that may be addressed through community empowerment initiatives. Flexibility, responsiveness and adaptability are essential in implementing community empowerment initiatives. Intervention goals need to be aligned with and address sex workers’ needs, even if these change over time. Box 1.4 shows how sex worker organizations in India and Kenya have adapted their programming to local needs and contexts. Box 1.4 Case example: Local needs and contexts in India and Kenya VAMP (Veshya Anyay Mukti Parishad), a sex worker organization in southern India supported by SANGRAM (Sampada Grameen Mahila Sanstha, an HIV organization), has adapted its programmes to directly address the needs of sex workers, who face financial exclusion and significant stigma and discrimination from health authorities. Community-led processes have resulted in sex workers being trained to support community members’ access to non-stigmatizing, subsidized health care. This is done by negotiating access to a range of government service providers and providing support for sex workers in financial difficulty. The result is strong collectives of sex workers empowered to claim and exercise their rights, improving the health and welfare of individual sex workers, their communities and their families. In Kenya, frequent problems with law enforcement officers became an issue for collective action by sex workers. The Bar Hostess Empowerment and Support Programme (BHESP) developed a programme in Nairobi to train local sex workers as paralegals. They studied local and national laws that affect sex work and the human rights of sex workers. The paralegals now educate other sex workers about their rights, help those who need legal advice and document human-rights violations, such as arbitrary arrest. Each paralegal works as an advocate responsible for 10–15 other sex workers. They are trained to identify the specific issues group members may have and to request additional resources from BHESP staff when needed. The result is strong and empowered sex workers who know the law and the rights of sex workers and are able to mount straightforward challenges to arbitrary arrest and detention. Similar paralegal systems are being implemented by the Women’s Legal Centre, which is funded by the Open Society Foundations in Cape Town, South Africa, among others. Such programmes addressing local needs and contexts build individual competencies and community resilience. 1.2.5 Promoting a human-rights framework Promoting and protecting the human rights of sex workers is central to all community empowerment processes. The 2012 Recommendations specifically address the human rights of sex workers. 2012 Recommendations: Good Practice Recommendation 2 11