BREAKING THE SILENCE OF SEX WORKER ISSUE IN LAO PDR

The UNFPA Laos and the Association for the Development and Promotion of Women’s Leadership (ADPWL) jointly implemented a remarkable project to break the silence on sex workers issues in Vientiane Laos. In Lao, sex workers are more marginalized, stigmatized, discriminated and isolated community. The sex workers rights movement just began and it's still at the primary level. The UNFPA takes some meaningful steps to change the situation and show its commitment to supporting the sex workers' rights movement from the human rights viewpoint. In 2024, UNFPA took several initiatives to help sex workers and in June 2024, there were two major activities from UNFPA and implemented by ADPWL. The UNFPA provided financial as well as technical support for both activities;

The activities were;

Advocacy with the stakeholders including the Government
Community mobilization and the awareness-building process by involving community members.

Advocacy with the Government and other stakeholders to stop stigma, discrimination, and violence

On the 6th of June 2024, the Association for the Development and Promotion of Women’s Leadership (ADPWL), organized an advocacy meeting with the Government and UNFPA, with financial and technical support from UNFPA Laos. The main objectives of this meeting were;

i) To introduce the ADPWL’s and UNFPA’s activities for the sex workers community in Laos

ii) To discuss the policy barrier to working with sex workers in Lao

iii) To discuss the major issues of sex workers and find out the way to fulfill the issues

iv) To gain more support from the Government to respond to the sex worker’s needs and priorities

At the meeting, there were 7 important high-level Government officials, 2 representatives from the UNFPA Laos, and 4 staff from the ADPWL. At the beginning of the meeting, UNFPA explained their activities and support for the sex workers, they also explained their commitment to work for sex workers in the future. The UNFPA also requested the Government to support sex worker's activities and end HIV/STIs in Laos.

The Director of ADPWL, Bouakham explained the ADPWL’s activities to the Government and also, she brings the major issues of sex workers. She mentioned that although health issues are major issues for sex workers, there are some structural issues too such as stigma and discrimination against sex workers. She said, “If we could not stop stigma and discrimination then we cannot convince sex workers to utilize the health services. So, it’s important to stop stigma and discrimination to ensure sex workers friendly health services.” Bouakham also mentioned that when sex workers feel stigma and discrimination they avoid going to those places as a result the CSOs or Government cannot reach enough sex workers. So, it is highly important to stop stigma and discrimination and ensure the stigma and discrimination-free services for the sex workers.

The government representatives mentioned that changing the policy is a long-term process but they will try to convince other departments to normalize the policies so that CSOs can work more independently with sex workers. They also mentioned that they are aware of the laws and policies against sex workers but to change those will take time. They also said that they know about stigma and discrimination issues and those need to be addressed to ensure that sex workers use the services without stigma and discrimination.

Reaching the sex workers at the outreach level with meaningful involvement of sex workers

The community-led process can change the game. Meaningful involvement of community people is the key to making sustainable changes in HIV and human rights, There are proven records that without meaningful involvement the project has never been successful. ADPWL and UNFPA are highly committed to involving the community in the project. ADPWL organized 3 days of events from 17th June to 19th June 2024. Within these 3 days, they reached over 138 sex workers.

This small grant project relies heavily on community events at the outreach level, all of whom are sex workers who have received training to become peer leaders. The community events are the backbone of the project. That’s why ADPWL always wants to ensure high-quality community events. There is no stigma, no discrimination and all the events are sex workers friendly. There was always space for sex workers to give their opinions

The community-led process can change the game. Meaningful involvement of community people is the key to making sustainable changes in HIV and human rights, There are proven records that without meaningful involvement the project has never been successful. ADPWL and UNFPA are highly committed to involving the community in the project. ADPWL organized 3 days of events from 17th June to 19th June 2024. Within these 3 days, they reached over 138 sex workers.

This small grant project relies heavily on community events at the outreach level, all of whom are sex workers who have received training to become peer leaders. The community events are the backbone of the project. That’s why ADPWL always wants to ensure high-quality community events. There is no stigma, no discrimination and all the events are sex workers friendly. There was always space for sex workers to give their opinions

There were multiple objectives for these events but the main objectives of these community events were

i) Build awareness of HIV/STIs, stigma, discrimination and violence

ii) Mobilize sex workers and build community sense so that they can support each other during the crisis

iii) To understand the needs and priorities of the community

iv) To build trust and friendships between the community and CSO

v) To build the solidarity to solve the challenges together

To fulfill the objectives the facilitators discussed STIs/HIV, stigma, discrimination, and violence in detail. The participants also show their knowledge of those issues. They often mentioned that there are no services for them and they need accessible, available, and affordable services. One sex worker said, “We know how to use condoms, the challenge is we don’t have a regular supply of condoms.” So, it’s clear that the supply of commodities is highly important. Another sex worker said, “Many sex workers are suffering from STIs but there are no clinics for sex workers. We understand we have health problems but we don’t know where we can get special services as sex workers.” The participants also mentioned police violence, they said police always take sexual services without money. They also mentioned that they are unable to use health services from the hospitals because of stigma and discrimination. According to the participants, the major issues for them are affordable health services, no stigma, no discrimination, and no violence against sex workers.

Finally, ADPWL’s priorities include mobilizing and developing organizational resources to bring our strategy to life. We welcome inquiries from organizations and individuals interested in collaborating and advancing our goals.