Our members are local, national and regional sex worker organisations and networks, across five regions: Africa; Asia Pacific; Europe (including Eastern Europe and Central Asia); Latin America; and North America and the Caribbean.
Featured member profiles highlight the work of NSWP’s member organisations around the world. The profiles are written by our regional correspondents.
Gabriela Leite was a leader of the Brazil sex workers' movement. In this article, the author recalls important moments in Gabriela's life, work and activism.
I first met with members of the Malawi Sex Workers Alliance (MASWA) during the 17th ICASA conference that was held in Cape Town in December 2013. I had the great pleasure to meet the beautiful, ever smiling Zinenani Lucy Majawa, the publicity secretary of MASWA, and was very excited to be interviewing her two years later, on the strides taken by this young and vibrant movement.
Daisy Nakato is the Executive Director of the Women’s Organisation Network for Human Rights Advocacy (WONETHA) in Uganda. In this interview, the sex worker leader talks about her life, work and activism.
Lourdes Barreto is a sex worker leader from Brazil. In this interview, she talks about her work and activism.
Veteran sex worker rights activist and human rights defender, Alejandra Gil has been in custody on remand for charges related to Human Trafficking. The prosecution is still looking for evidence while finalising their case and all the while it is not certain when the final judgement will be reached by the Court in Mexico. The laws under which Alejandra are charged conflate human trafficking with sex work. Alejandra is one of a large number of women currently incarcerated in prisons all over Mexico under these new laws. In December 2014 one of the NSWP regional correspondents had the privilege to speak with Alejandra Gil by phone, from where she is currently on remand in a prison in Mexico City.
The Sex Workers IN Group (SWING) are a sex worker organisation with drop-in spaces and offices across three of Thailand’s most infamous red-light districts: Bangkok (Patpong), Koh Samui, and Pattaya (Walking Street). As an organisation working at the local, national and regional level, SWING are recognised for their expertise in developing creative and innovative core programs and projects which focus on the health and wellbeing of sex worker communities, using a human rights framework and peer-led health promotion activities.
SASOD - Society Against Sexual Orientation Discrimination (previously called Students Against Sexual Orientation Discrimination) was formed in 2003 by young people as a progressive, student response to the public debates around prohibiting sexual orientation as grounds for discrimination in the Guyana constitution.
Naomi Sayers is a sex worker leader involved in Maggie's Toronto (Canada). In this interview, she talks about her life, work and activism.
The Red Umbrella Sexual Health and Human Rights Association “Kırmızı Şemsiye” is a sex worker led organisation founded in April 2013 in Turkey and a member of the regional networks ICRSE, the International Commitee on the Rights of Sex Workers in Europe and SWAN, the Sex Worker’s Rights Advocacy Network in Central and Eastern Europe and Central Asia.
Dorothy Ogotu is a sex worker leader involved in the African Sex Workers Alliance (ASWA). In this interview, the sex worker leader talks about her life, work and activism.
The Associação Mulheres Guerreiras is one of the newest groups of sex workers formed in Brazil, yet it has been incredibly active in activism, advocacy and campaigning. As a member of the Brazilian Network of Prostitutes (Rede Brasileira de Prostitutas), it has established actions at the local and national level. It is recognised today as one of the most active pro-sex worker rights organisation in Brazil.
"I really believe in action and I believe in human ability. I don't accept "I can't" from myself or other sex worker activists - old or new. I believe that all people learn best by having to use their own initiative, cultivating their own ideas and by actually doing something - no matter what their effort yields, the process of doing it is what's crucial."
Malee Van Derberg is a sex worker leader involved in Empower Foundation (Thailand) . In this interview, Malee talks about her life, work and activism.
Maggie's: The Toronto Sex Workers Action Project, Canada’s oldest sex worker-led organisation, was founded in 1986, when one of its primary goals was to address the then-emerging HIV/AIDS crisis. Today, Maggie’s is primarily funded as a harm reduction organisation through the Ontario Ministry of Health’s AIDS Bureau, and provides safer sex and safer drug use supplies; education, and support.
John Mathenge Mukaburu is the direcor of HOYMAS (Kenya) and Vice President of NSWP. In this interview, the sex worker leader talks about his life, work and activism.
How did you become involved with sex worker rights activism? What issues or people inspired you?