[COMMENTARY] Sex Work is Work, Plenary Speech by Kaythi Win

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By Kthi Win

Plenery speech by Kaythi Win, Chairperson of Asia Pacific Network of Sex Workers, at Association of Women in Development Forum forum in Istanbul on April 21,  2012. See the exciting video here.

Hello everybody,

I am Kthi Win from Myanmar and I am a sex worker. I manage a national organization for female, male & transgender sex workers in Burma & I am also the chairperson of the Asia Pacific Network of Sex Workers.  Until now, organizing anything in Myanmar has been very difficult.  And people ask, “how did you set up a national program for sex workers?”  And my answer to them is “Our work is illegal.  Every night we manage to earn money without getting arrested by the police.  We used to work and organize together, so we use this knowledge in order to work out how we can set up the National Network without making the government angry”.

This topic is about transforming economic power.  I want to say to you, that when a woman makes the decision to sell sex, she has already made the decision to empower herself economically.  What we do in organizing sex workers, is we build on the power that the sex worker has already taken for herself – the decision to not be poor.

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[UPDATE] January – March 2012

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Celebrating our fifth anniversary

This year, Asia Catalyst celebrates five years of helping to build grassroots groups in East and Southeast Asia. As part of our 5th Anniversary Campaign, our board has promised to match donations to help Chinese rights advocates come to the International AIDS Conference in Washington D.C. in July. That means $100 donation is worth $200, and $500 is worth $1000. Please make a tax-deductible gift here.

A gift of $100 or more gets you a lovely gift book — with photos and background on our inspiring partners in China and Southeast Asia.

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[COMMENTARY] Marginalization and HIV Risk Among Sex Workers in China | 中国性工作者的边缘化及艾滋病感染风险

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By Mike Frick

A new study by researchers at Johns Hopkins School of Public Health and published in The Lancet Infectious Diseases examines the burden of HIV among female sex workers in 50 low- and middle-income countries. This is the first systematic review of HIV risk among female sex workers globally. The authors find that female sex workers in China face a 50-times increased odds of HIV infection compared to all Chinese women of reproductive age. This increased risk is slightly lower than the risk faced by female sex workers in India, but much higher than the increased odds of HIV infection among sex workers in Thailand, Cambodia, Indonesia and Vietnam.

近日，约翰霍普斯金大学公共卫生学院研究人员在《柳叶刀传染病》杂志 (The Lancet Infectious Diseases)上发表最新研究，研究调查了在世界50个低、中等收入国家，艾滋病毒给女性性工作者中艾滋病感染的情况。这是第一份全球性的针对女性性工作者所面临的艾滋病风险的系统性综述研究。作者指出，在中国，与其他育龄女性相比，女性性工作者感染艾滋病毒的风险按50倍的几率增长。这一数值只稍稍低于印度女性性工作者面临的艾滋病毒感染率，但却远远高于泰国、柬埔寨、印度尼西亚和越南。

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[NEWS] Women’s Network for Unity: “Sex Work Is Work”

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Journalist Paula Stromberg’s interview with the Women’s
Network for Unity (WNU), a sex workers’ union with over 6,400 members,
highlights the continuing struggle for Cambodian sex workers to be recognized
as workers, rather than as victims in need of rescue. They are speaking out
against anti-human-trafficking laws that define “all sex workers as victims, ensuring
the police arrest everyone during raids, not just children and sex slaves
locked in brothels. But we are not all victims,” says Ly Pisey, a member of
WNU. “The WNU slogan, Sex Work Is Work, demands that sex workers be taken
seriously as people having an occupation and that a distinction be made between
human trafficking and voluntary, adult sex work.” Read the rest of the article here.