[procaare] Stimulating community development among sex-workers

[AIDS2002 <procaare@usa.healthnet.org>]

Stimulating community development among sex-workers
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Can resourcing community development for sex workers lead to better health and
occupational safety for sex workers? Absolutely, says Shane Petzer of the International
Network for Sex Work Projects (NSWP). "Improvements in working conditions can lead to
better sex services." By and large, sex workers are separated by stigma and policy from
health institutions and other sectors of labour. Community development can help bridge the
gap created by these inequalities.

In this skills-building session cosponsored by the NSWP and the Horizons Program of the
International HIV/AIDS Alliance, two projects in particular were discussed: a case study
of community development in the Sonagachi Project of Kolkata, India, and a project
assessing the role of community development in sex work research in Rio de Janeiro,
Brazil.

The impetus for both projects was the need to move beyond health promotion models towards
models of community development. For example, shortly after the initialisation of the
Sonagachi project, sex workers and their advocates realized that it was essential for
community development to be incorporated into a project that was originally envisioned as
a traditional epidemiological study.
In order to serve both the needs of the research and the needs of community development,
an orientation towards work and occupational safety was required - an orientation many
sectors of the labour market currently enjoy. In time this project would come to fulfill a
number of functions. Perhaps its most important function was to focus on politics and
power and in particular the politics of power.

Incorporating community development for sex workers created a political space and forums
for disacussion. Community development provided capacity. It helped teach sex workers how
to participate.

As Paolo Longo, a founder of the NSWP, told the group of sex workers gathered in
Barcelona, "Community development can help build the capacity of sex workers to
participate."

It also has the potential to turn sex workers from two dimensional objects or subjects of
research into true partners in the research process, and in doing so, to make a real
impact on the health and safety of sex workers, their clients, families and children.

Key Correspondent
Health & Development Networks

AIDS2002 Conference
Barcelona, July 7-12, 2002

Email: correspondents@hdnet.org
Web: http://www.hdnet.org

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