Pow Wow: Training of Sex Workers Hope Chigudu
2 Pow Wow: Training of Sex Workers
WELCOME TO THE POW-WOW1: TRAINING FOR SEX WORKERS
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Pow-Wow time is Native American Aboriginal Peoples getting together to join in dancing, visiting, sleeping-over, renewing old friendships and making new ones. This is a time to renew thoughts of the old ways and to preserve a rich heritage. www.elements.nb.ca/theme/ethics/pow/wow.htm In our own context, we hope this will be fun, it will be a time of dancing, singing, sharing and simply being.
TABLE OF CONTENTS PART 1..............................................................................................................................................5 1.
INTRODUCTION .....................................................................................................................6
1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 1.8 1.9 1.10 1.11 1.12 1.13 1.14 1.15 1.16 1.17 1.18 1.19 1.20 1.21 1.22
In their voice .......................................................................................................................................... 6 Why Pow Wow? FAHAMU’s voice ................................................................................................... 6 Sex workers and organising ............................................................................................................... 7 What will the Pow Wow training achieve? ................................................................................... 8 How was Pow Wow developed? .................................................................................................... 8 For whom?.............................................................................................................................................. 8 Choosing participants ....................................................................................................................... 8 Pow Wow Location.............................................................................................................................. 9 Time frame ........................................................................................................................................... 10 Duration of training ........................................................................................................................... 10 Duration of each topic ..................................................................................................................... 10 Seating arrangements ...................................................................................................................... 10 Resource persons ............................................................................................................................... 10 Training style and methodology .................................................................................................... 11 Contracts for resource persons ...................................................................................................... 12 Monitoring and learning: ................................................................................................................ 12 Host organisations ............................................................................................................................. 12 Tools needed during the training................................................................................................... 12 Launching Pow Wow ........................................................................................................................ 13 Letter of welcome.............................................................................................................................. 13 Pilot ......................................................................................................................................................... 13 Workshops ............................................................................................................................................ 13
PART 2............................................................................................................................................ 14 2. 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 2.7 2.8 2.9 2.10 2.11 2.12 2.13 2.14
INITIATING AND IMMERSING THE PARTICIPANTS INTO POW WOW .................................... 15 Launching Pow Wow - Off To A Retreat ...................................................................................... 15 Setting The Tone For The Meeting ................................................................................................. 16 Welcome .............................................................................................................................................. 19 Self Introduction.................................................................................................................................. 21 Guardians - Providing Support To Each Other ........................................................................... 23 Group Norms ...................................................................................................................................... 24 Expectations ....................................................................................................................................... 25 Making A Contract With Self ........................................................................................................... 26 Reflection ............................................................................................................................................ 28 Promoting Rebel Leadership And Crossing The Line ................................................................ 29 Team Building ...................................................................................................................................... 30 Commitments and Moving Forward............................................................................................. 32 Topic: Reflecting On The Sessions and Debriefing .................................................................... 33 End of the Launch.............................................................................................................................. 34
PART 3............................................................................................................................................ 35 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4
Topic: Heart, Mind and Body ......................................................................................................... 36 Topic: Gender and Social Transformation .................................................................................. 40 Topic: Unshackling our Mental Bondage by Dismantling Patriarchy, and Understanding Feminism ......................................................................................................... 46 Topic: Breaking the Silence: Our Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights................ 55
4 Pow Wow: Training of Sex Workers 3.5 3.6 3.7 3.8 3.9 3.10 3.11 3.12 3.13
Topic: Training on the Legal Rights of Sex Workers ................................................................... 61 Topic: Movement Building ............................................................................................................... 64 Topic: Dynamic Organisations: A Catalyst for Sex Worker Movement Building ............... 68 Topic: Advocacy, Networking and Coalition Building for Sex Workers’ Rights and Social Change ........................................................................................................................... 71 Topic: Transformational Leadership .............................................................................................. 77 Topic: Taking Action by Presenting to the Key Stakeholders ................................................. 81 Topic: Reflecting on The Passports and Expectations ............................................................ 83 Topic: Plans for the Future ................................................................................................................ 85 Topic: Closing Exercise...................................................................................................................... 85
ANNEX............................................................................................................................................................... 86
PART 1
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Birth of Pow Wow
•
Planning for Pow Wow
6 Pow Wow: Training of Sex Workers
1. INTRODUCTION 1.1 In their voice 2 We are tired of discrimination, exploitation as well as public insults against us and our work. We are outraged by the persistent harassment, injustice, and discrimination against sex workers. We are fed up with being marginalised by the patriarchal culture, systems and policies. We condemn stigma, stereotypes, taboos and the exclusion we experience on a day to day basis. We are extremely outraged by the violence unleashed on us, which appears in various forms; and then we are blamed for causing HIV and promoting prostitution. We are numbed by clinics and health personnel that treat us in a way that takes away our dignity and humanity. We are livid, we hate the way our communities judge us and treat us as if we are not citizens. We resent the way society takes the liberty to scrutinise our lives, work and intimacy in workshops and public media without our permission. We want the police to know that we are not their toys, to be played with whenever they feel like having a ball. They harass, demean and treat us as rugs that they use to clean their feet. We are fed up with politicians who use our services in private but condemn us in public as if they don’t know that the personal is political. We are fed up of being invited to one workshop after another but thereafter remaining invisible or uninteresting, and abandoned like leftover food. We are mad at our political marginalisation (from the inability to negotiate condom use, to lack of voice regarding the allocation of national resources. Conservative religious and other fundamentalists don’t believe that we too are children of God, with emotions and that we are entitled to sexual pleasure and love. We bemoan the lack of female condoms. We are sexually abused and harassed by pimps, bar owners, and the police but we have no state protection. The Laws in our countries that address sexual and gender-based violence go unenforced when it comes to us. We are tired of being labelled, we want to wake up and walk the streets as normal human beings because that is who we are. Therefore, we are determined to assert our own power and to organise collectively; join forces and act together as sex workers and as full citizens. It is on the basis of this demand that we want to engage in the kind of training that will enable us to capitalise on the collective power of our numbers, so as to build a just society that respects all. We will use our training to build a robust and energetic movement. We want to acquire capacities to enable us to enhance our public visibility and recognition of our work in a way that will shift policies and programmes, make us feel empowered and place us as equals to other citizens.
1.2 Why Pow Wow? FAHAMU’s voice At FAHAMU, we believe that sexual related discrimination is one of the major barriers to ending all systems of oppression, including patriarchy and homophobia. We believe that sex workers have a stake and a role in fighting for justice, and that not only our humanity but also our collective liberation depends on ending discrimination based on what one does with one’s body. Therefore, we are convinced that when a group of marginalised people come together to gain organisational and political skills, analyse, and strategise to advance their
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Voices of sex-workers harvested during the training needs assessment in South Africa, Zimbabwe, Namibia, Tanzania, Uganda and Kenya.
rights and improve their own safety as activists, then change happens. By expanding sex workers’ use of the skills, talents and resources they already have, we seek to amplify their agendas and influence at all levels, and to increase their capacity to mobilise urgent and long terms actions in response to extreme violations of their rights, well-being, and dignity.
Our role is to contribute to social justice by giving sex workers the skills they need and hence the importance of Pow Wow. We believe that sex workers’ leadership training can and should happen in different ways - with an understanding that whichever form it takes it should be context-specific. We recognise that when there are several trainees from the same organisation being trained together, there is bound to be solidarity, support and continuity; it is easier for them to share tips and ideas and to give each other advice and when one forgets her song, someone else will pick it up, as their familiar with the melody and lyrics. Sex in most of our societies is traditionally connected with new life, birth, fertility, with blessing and with joy. At times it can be something threatening mostly because of the stereotypes we have about sex, for example sex as a form of employment. Pow Wow has been produced in response to a growing need for materials to address sex workers human rights issues.
1.3 Sex workers and organising All over Africa, sex workers are making vital contributions to the survival, wellbeing, and development of themselves, their families and communities. Yet they are not respected as citizens who contribute to development in various ways. Like most citizens, they are affected by the global challenge of ‘top-down’/‘conservative’ approaches to understanding human/social potential. A bright spot in the struggle is that in order to survive and to struggle against patriarchy and other structures of power and domination which oppress and exploit them, many sex workers have organised themselves in different kinds of groups and networks in their communities and at the national levels. These groups and organisations have provided different kinds of support and solidarity to sex workers (see annexe). They have enabled sex workers to amplify their voices, increase visibility, build alliances, challenge the stigma and taboo associated with sex work and develop their leadership. It is an ongoing process of negotiations. For example, it was reported that the City Council of Nairobi is considering relaxing its bylaws to allow sex workers to work freely in the city. “City Mayor George Aladwa told representatives of commercial sex workers who called on him at his office yesterday, that the council will harmonise its by-laws with the new constitution to allow them to carry out their work in a conducive environment...”3 Despite the courage and palpable achievements of these groups and organisations, many are small and still learning how to manage the demands of sex work alongside the challenges of political organising, and how to sustain alliances within hostile and stigmatising environments. While there is a tendency to think that small must mean authentic (and
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Nairobi plans to legalise prostitution, February 3, 2012http://www.capitalfm.co.ke/news/2012/02/nairobi-plans-to-legalise-prostitution/
8 Pow Wow: Training of Sex Workers therefore politically effective), the scale of the social, economic and political problems sex workers face, coupled, with the power of the institutions they confront, means that sex workers’ organisations often require sophisticated levels of organisational capacity in order to be able to challenge power and policy. Above all they need strong activist leaders, who are deeply connected to the experience of sex work and attuned to the demands of political activism; hence the importance of ‘The FAHAMU Leadership Initiative for Sex Worker Rights’ known as Pow Wow.
1.4 What will the Pow Wow training achieve? Effective organising requires varieties of activist leadership capabilities, including the capacity to motivate, facilitate, mediate and mobilise embodied in multiple leaders throughout the movement. Therefore Pow Wow aims to achieve the following: Provide a supportive, enriching training and care-based environment; where the trainees are respected and encouraged to dream, to develop their potential as organisers, think creatively and develop exciting visions for change in their lives, organisations and communities. Develop a cadre of leaders who feel confident, competent and able to strengthen sex workers’ visibility and influence at many levels. Strengthen and boost the social and psychological capital of sex workers by encouraging them to learn together and to exploit their talents for their own progress and that of the community. Learn, gain and generate new tools, information, and strategic political knowledge. Share the tools to resist and ultimately transform power in all its relations, structures, forms, spaces, and places. Renew energy and spirit.
1.5 How was Pow Wow developed?
The programme is based on the needs of sex workers identified during needs assessment consultations carried out in South Africa, Zimbabwe, Namibia, Tanzania, Uganda and Kenya.
1.6 For whom?
Pow Wow is for those sex workers who are interested in training together to transform their lives and the lives of other sex workers. This is because the sex workers consulted during the needs assessment expressed a desire to learn together instead of identifying one person for training and taking her away from her colleagues. The suggestion was accepted because we also believe that people learn best when they are in their environment with the people they know.
1.7 Choosing participants 1. 2. 3.
DO YOU ever doubt your leadership qualities, and wonder if in actual fact you are a leader? DO YOU feel confident, competent and in control of your work and work experience? DO YOU see things and conflicts happening around you, but don’t really know what to do about them?
4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14.
DO YOU want to develop clear, open, honest and strong relationships with fellow sex workers, marked by trust and mutual respect? Do YOU ever dream about influencing society, your community, legislators and other public officials so that they can support the decriminalisation of sex workers? DO YOU ever worry about capacities in your organisation and movement, do you want to energise it with skills, excitement and fun? Do YOU want to see sex workers pooling their resources and skills, their organising power so as to amplify their voices and organise for change? DO YOU want to take action, inspire others, call for change, and become a stronger activist? DO YOU wish you could strengthen sex worker’s voice, visibility, and collective organising power so that together you can build a stronger movement? DO YOU want to mobilise fellow sex workers to talk about what’s going on in their work places, create exciting solutions together and make positive, productive changes? DO YOU wish you could tell your stories on stage and have people really listen to what you think is important? DO YOU have an open mind; are you willing to learn with people who are different from you physically, emotionally and materially? ARE YOU willing to learn with other colleagues, be rooted and flexible at the same time? ARE YOU able to commit to this training for a year?
Then Pow Wow is for you! No prior training is needed but just a willingness to be part of learning with colleagues and playing an active role in the community. Also note that the training will involve sex workers from diverse backgrounds and experiences, so as to spread leadership in the ‘community’. Other issues to consider in selecting the participants 1. Sexual orientation 2. Age 3. Level of formal education 3. Socio economic status 4. Marital status Number of participants The aim should be to have a maximum number of fifteen and a minimum of ten participants in each country. Such a group is large enough to work with and small enough to encourage all to participate.
1.8 Pow Wow Location The training will be conducted in one urban area in each country before ‘disseminating’ it to the rural areas. In terms of space, all involved including FAHAMU should agree on a venue that is conducive, airy and pleasant. Ensure that the training room is not dull, boring and devoid of energy and emotions.
10 Pow Wow: Training of Sex Workers
1.9 Time frame Different countries will discuss appropriate times for training. The best thing would be for all the participants and the resource persons to agree on the right time to meet so that no one is terribly inconvenienced. A tentative programme could be planned over two days, once a month.
1.10 Duration of training
Pow Wow will be run as a pilot over the course of one year. It should be spread out, rather than be intensive so that people can make use of what they learn in their day-to-day lives between each session.
1.11 Duration of each topic Sex workers are at different levels of activism, formal education and exposure. We deliberately have not allocated time for each topic but have indicated some estimates. This is because participants might want to explore a session at great length while others might find some sessions easier depending on other training they have had before. It is also difficult to allocate time as some things are of an emotional nature and the participants might want to spend more time thinking and healing. As adults, they might want more time to probe deeper. We leave the decision on duration to the facilitators and the hosting organisation.
1.12 Seating arrangements
Where feasible encourage people to sit in a circle so as to show that they are all equal. Discourage practices that encourage power over!
1.13 Resource persons
The resource persons will come from a diverse mix of experiences. There will be guest presenters and speakers: local ‘experts and activists’ on specific subjects, artists to help with artistic expression, counsellors to address emotionally related issues and other relevant people. All the resources persons from each country will convene one to go through the training materials together and agree on methodology. At the national level, they will convene three times a year to reflect on new developments, new challenges and how to integrate emerging issues into course content and delivery. Resource persons will also agree on the strategies for assessing and ensuring consistent quality of training. Sex work is heavy and emotional. Ensure that there is a heart, mind and body facilitator, who is also a feminist counsellor.
Criteria for selecting resources persons 1. Experience in participatory adult learning techniques. 2. Fluency in the language spoken by the majority of the people being trained. 3. Sound knowledge and understanding of gender and of sex worker issues. 4. Trust and respect of participants (old, young, LGBIT, heterosexual, rich and poor)
5.
A basic training in sexuality including knowledge of the resource person’s own feelings about sexuality and awareness of her/his own body. 6. An ability to discuss sexual matters in public without stammering and with a sensitive approach. 7. A non-judgemental attitude. 8. Ability to use humour appropriately. 9. Humility to learn from the participants and to acknowledge it when not in the know. 10. Respect for confidentiality. 11. Time to prepare and run sessions: Respecting sex workers as people and according them the respect of proper preparation. 12. Ability to keep the group together, energised and excited. If one has been asked to become a resource person, they should try and read the whole Pow Wow and get a feel of what it is about. In this way, they will be able to: 1. Gain familiarity with all the Pow Wow topics 2. Anticipate areas where more reading is needed 3. Increase own understanding of issues related to sex work 4. Increase solidarity by understanding that sex work is work
1.14 Training style and methodology Many adults’ in education spaces, which are new to them, have limited attention-spans, and learning processes can be complex and hence engagement with other participants, a sense of fun, clear benefits of the training and creating an atmosphere that makes them look forward to the training is fundamental to ‘keeping them here’. Therefore; The methodology for Pow Wow training is participatory incorporating knowledge and wisdom gained from the needs assessment. The training and sequence is based on experiential techniques that tap into the experience of learners. Training is fun and interactive. It uses simple exercises and tools with conceptual explanations and practical background information and stories. Case studies, focus group discussions, fact sheets, visits to communities, movies, photography, story-telling, drawing, debate, sport, and apprenticeship will be some of the tools used. The order of the contents reflects certain logic; it is based on what the sex workers know but also on what they need to know. The resources and tools can be structured and used as separate pieces or sequenced in a different order according to users’ needs and objectives. Mentoring will be arranged. It will take on a variety of forms depending on individuals and their needs. The mentoring will be based on those aspects where individuals want to improve themselves. Mentors do not necessarily have to be in civil society organisations. The participants will be encouraged to keep journals. For those who can’t write, they can draw or use whatever methods they are comfortable with. Journaling will be one way of ‘opening’ the heart/mind and it will also be a mechanism for monitoring the progress of the training. The participants will read their journals/share whenever they are together (those who want to). This will enable the facilitator to integrate some of the contents of the journals back into the training. Pow Wow will establish a creative safe space for sharing participants’ personal stories. The stories will be documented and at the end of the training, a small book will be produced(with only those who are willing to share stories).
12 Pow Wow: Training of Sex Workers
There might be some sex workers who can neither read nor write. It might be more fun to emphasise drawing much more than writing but there might also be situations when writing might be required. Drawings need not be sophisticated; they can be simple provided the participants can explain their drawings
1.15 Contracts for resource persons
FAHAMU and the hosting organisation should ensure that there are contracts for all the facilitators.
1.16 Monitoring and learning: Choosing what to learn and monitor is a process and is deeply political; the choice of frameworks, indicators, processes, etc., will be determined by FAHAMU together with the ‘learners’. Addressing this in practice involves being deliberate and explicit in determining: What needs measurement, why and for whom? Who will do the measuring and how? How will the knowledge gained from measuring be used? Who benefits from the knowledge produced? Who owns the knowledge and has a say in how it is used?
1.17 Host organisations In each country the number of trainees will depend on the number of sex worker organisations. A group of about 10-15 people in each organisation will be brought together to learn collectively. Some will be based in organisations but each organisation should be encouraged to invite a few members to join. The logistics of training will be determined by each country. Pow Wow will not provide boarding facilities except during the time of launching and hence all the participants will be commuting from home. Clear guidelines on the roles of the host organisation, and the relationship between the host and FAHAMU will be developed. FAHAMU will support the development of the relationship to ensure that there is general flow of communication and that it is ideal for the realisation of the training objectives. Responsibility of the host organisation (convenor) Provide support and institutional base for resource persons Meet formal communication needs Handle financial administration and management and other infra-structural support where possible Provide security support if and when needed Ensure that the space used for training is conducive to learning (consider sitting arrangement, colour of the room, desks, etc.)
1.18 Tools needed during the training Camera, balls, skipping ropes, training materials such as paper, pens, cards and markers, flip charts, computers, and a projector.
1.19 Launching Pow Wow The launch should really be a colourful, spanking, fun event with a strong punch. It should be a compelling day that paves the way for the training. It should be uplifting, therapeutic and pleasurable. It should be a Pow Wow!
1.20 Letter of welcome Write a really interesting, motivating and congratulatory letter to each individual selected to attend Pow Wow. Explain how the training will be done and invite them to commit. Talk about the launch and give details. Give a list of what they should bring such as photos, fun clothes, music of their choice and a good mood.
1.21 Pilot Pow Wow will be conducted in Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, Zimbabwe and Namibia. During the first phase of implementation, it is suggested that South Africa should be left out as it has more other resources. The training should target one big city in each country and should attract only those individuals with access to the venue.
1.22 Workshops There will be two workshops: one will be held half way during the training and will be on violence against sex workers, targeting service provide (some of whom perpetrate violence) and another at the end aimed at the same stakeholders. The aim of the last one will be to build strategic political engagement to inform and Influence the wider public and to solicit their support on a specific issue that concerns all the sex workers
*********** END OF PART 1 **********
14 Pow Wow: Training of Sex Workers
PART 2
Pow Wow Launch
Training Set Up
2. INITIATING AND IMMERSING THE PARTICIPANTS INTO POW WOW Day 1
2.1 Launching Pow Wow - Off To A Retreat ...he-hi-ho away we go...Bus riding bus riding!
In each country, Pow Wow training will be launched during a ‘2 day fun away’ retreat. The participants, resource persons, hosting organisation and FAHAMU representative will leave for a quiet place in the morning, and start the process at about 11 am. They will leave the retreat the following day at about 4 pm.
Materials • Bus • Music • Computer • Projector • Felt tip pens • Paper • Printer • Coloured pencils or pastels • Printed case studies • Song lyrics • Drinking water • Drum
Objectives To give all the key stakeholders an opportunity to meet and understand the architecture of the training, address their fears, and to strengthen the relationships between and among all the key Participants stakeholders. It is said that fear makes strangers • All Pow Wow stakeholders of people who would be friends. To affirm and embrace the participants in a way that expresses fundamental respect for them and for each other. This will help the resource persons to engage in the difficult process of examining their own values regarding their leadership in delivering Pow Wow. To build a firm foundation for the training. To know and understand the expectations of the participants, resource persons, hosting organisation and FAHAMU. To make fun part of training. Process Identify a rather modest but interesting venue with a generator (in case of Uganda, Tanzania and Zimbabwe where power cuts are frequent) with lots of outside space and a beautiful garden Get reliable transport Ensure that all are ready to go by 9am Check into the hotel and start immediately with minimum refreshments Notes for the facilitator Emphasise that it is important that all participants and other key stakeholders turn up and do so on time. Check that the bus company is reliable, their buses are serviced regularly, and the driver is dependable with a driving licence. Check that the bus is clean and insured.
16 Pow Wow: Training of Sex Workers
2.2 Setting The Tone For The Meeting Dancing Pow Wow The launch should start with wild dancing (What is the point of a revolution if we can’t dance?) so as to create an atmosphere of celebration, camaraderie, friendship and a welcome. Why celebrate? In the introduction to the session, remind the participants that a few years ago, no one would have dreamt of training sex workers, at least not in East and Southern Africa. If there was any training at all, it was about HIV and AIDS. Today, sex work is being recognised by human rights organisations as legitimate work. Therefore this occasion is to celebrate that recognition as well as to honour the ancestors who worked hard to make this possible.
Materials • Music • Song lyrics – (Something Inside) So Strong by LabiSaffre • Drinking water • Drum Participants • All Pow Wow stakeholders
Objectives Celebrate each other and the programme. Honour a special woman/man mentor or ancestor who has been an inspiration. Change does not just happen; there is always a champion or a spark who paves the way. Launch a potentially life transforming programme. Process Gather in the meeting room and ensure that there are no obstacles. Play danceable music. Invite all to close their eyes and let themselves go crazy. Encourage them to let their bodies curve in the air and see how their energies play off each other. After 30 minutes, allow individuals who want to pay tribute to their ancestor/mentor or anyone they admire to do so by saying “My name is Maria and I pay tribute to Nakito, she...Let’s dance for her hey!” All dance for one minute and then music stops. Give a chance to someone else. Notes for the facilitator Remind the participants that training is going to be fun, this is just the beginning. Pow Wow will demystify training by making it inspiring. As the participants cool off, play this song: (and give them printed copies of the lyrics) Labi Saffre – (Something Inside) So Strong
The higher you build your barriers The taller I become The farther you take my rights away The faster I will run You can deny me You can decide to turn your face away No matter, cause there's... Something inside so strong I know that I can make it Though you're doing me wrong, so wrong You thought that my pride was gone Oh no, something inside so strong Oh ohohohoh something inside so strong The more you refuse to hear my voice The louder I will sing You hide behind walls of Jericho Your lies will come tumbling Deny my place in time You squander wealth that's mine My light will shine so brightly It will blind you Cause there's... Something inside so strong I know that I can make it Though you're doing me wrong, so wrong You thought that my pride was gone Oh no, something inside so strong Oh ohohohoh something inside so strong Brothers and sisters When they insist we're just not good enough When we know better Just look 'em in the eyes and say I'm gonna do it anyway I'm gonna do it anyway Something inside so strong And I know that I can make it Though you're doing me wrong, so wrong You thought that my pride was gone Oh no, something inside so strong Oh ohohohoh something inside so strong Brothers and sisters When they insist we're just good not enough
18 Pow Wow: Training of Sex Workers When we know better Just look 'em in the eyes and say I'm gonna do it anyway I'm gonna do it anyway I'm gonna do it anyway I'm gonna do it anyway Because there's something inside so strong And I know that I can make it Though you're doing me, so wrong You thought that my pride was gone Oh no, something inside so strong Oh ohohohoh something inside so strong Because there's something inside so strong And I know that I can make it Though you're doing me, so wrong You thought that my pride was gone Oh no, something inside so strong Oh ohohohoh something inside so strong
2.3 Welcome Pow Wow leadership training? What is that? Many will join but they will do so with many questions. What are some of the emotions one experiences when they find themselves in a new place? How does it feel to be selected for long-term training? How about the fears and concerns regarding work likely to be left undone, family issues, business with clients, and uncertainties regarding ability to contribute and to learn? This session should create faith in the training and make the participants look forward to it.
Materials • Programme Participants • All Pow Wow stakeholders
Pow Wow training is important and involves some sacrifices. It has to go right in order to justify the resources put into it. Therefore a welcome and assurance from the host organisation is in order. The welcome should be done in a way that makes the participants feel visible, supported, challenged, and guided, while enabling them to experience piercing insights into their being, thinking about their lives and how to improve them and building trust in the process. In each person there are bound to be secrets, fears, anger, and pain hiding somewhere inside the cells. The retreat will be a safe place to acknowledge this darkness, to come to terms with it and let it go. So room for letting go should be created. Objectives Understand meeting’s overall goal, objectives, and methodology Know participants and appreciate the rich resources available in the room Develop norms (guiding principles) for making the time together fruitful and respectful Share each other’s own expectations and learning objectives (“I am defeated and I know it if I meet any human being from whom I find myself unable to learn anything” George Herbert Palmer) Let go of darkness Process The resource person introduces herself and then asks people to sit in a circle, she will be a part of the circle so that there are no hierarchies. She will thank all for sparing their time to come to the retreat and emphasise the importance of it. Tell them about the retreat as well as the overall Pow Wow training plan. Address administrative issues. Allow for questions. Notes for the facilitator Emphasise the need to avoid discriminating against each other (in some countries male sex workers are eyed suspiciously by the female sex workers) Inspire people to engage with the training, the power in their lives and their world differently Remind them that it’s important for the sex workers’ movement to have well trained activist leaders equipped with political skills
20 Pow Wow: Training of Sex Workers
Hope that during the training some network will be leveraged Emphasise the importance of committing and being present Talk about open communication, promoting love and energy in the group and avoiding energy suckers Thank them once again for the dance and introduce the next session
2.4 Self Introduction Self introduction that provokes one to reflect on her/his life is key to a good start. The introduction will use the power of naming and the power of interrogating one’s identity as the participants embark on the training journey. Some important questions for the participants (even resource persons): Is the person you are today the same person that you want to be or is there another person struggling to come out? What woman/man is bottled up inside you? What woman/man is ready to bloom? Is this woman/man angry? Passionate? Fearless? At Peace? Which woman/man hasn’t been fully born, fully released yet? Which one is still simmering inside you? How can you help her/him find her/his way into the world?
Materials • Paper • Pens • Stapler • Glue • Coloured pencils Participants • All Pow Wow stakeholders
Passports will be used during the introduction. Passports enable us to cross borders, to experience other cultures, and to be exposed to new ideas, hence the significance of using them during self introduction. However, official passports that most of us carry do not really reveal our true identity. They are supposed to show that we are citizens of country X but even the word citizens is a problem since most marginalised people have no access to the resources that they are entitled to (as citizens). Objectives Knowing each other beyond just names Increasing self reflection and self awareness, and the belief in one’s own responsibility in creating the future that they want Sharing voices Daring participants to take risks, to dream, to imagine, to express themselves and confront challenges Process Exercise 1: Create own passport Start by encouraging the participants to share their voices, as this is important in their ability to grow as human beings and in their contribution to the sex workers’ movement All the participants and resource persons design their own passports and include a photograph if available. The passport represents one’s life up to ‘this point’. Write the usual things found in a passport as well as a brief description of the current life (include interest, values, abilities, motives, strengths and fears). Each person shares her current passport with all the ‘Immigration officers in the room’. The immigration officers are supposed to listen carefully as each person reads her/his passport and ask critical but helpful questions. (Note whoever is not presenting is an immigration officer and is free to ask questions about the passport). Everyone gets a visa! (Explain what a visa is to the participants who have not travelled).
22 Pow Wow: Training of Sex Workers Exercise 2: Create a second passport After all the introductions are done, each person makes another ‘passport’ indicating her/his dreams, dreams s/he does not allow herself/himself to even consider because they seem too unrealistic, frivolous, or insane. They can describe the other person whom s/he wants to be but is not. As each person writes, s/he should practise allowing herself/himself to dream into big visions. Encourage the participants to set aside all the questions that come up about what’s possible and how you could get there. Explain that the questions will come up for sure but keep setting them aside. This is not the time to work on the ‘how’ or put the dream on trial. It’s time to welcome the vision, make friends with it, and hold it lovingly in the mind as you walk through your training. Urge the participants to just enjoy it, to smile quietly at the new vision that has arrived. Let it marinate, and unfold, and simply exist. Each participant reads out the new passports to the whole group, then puts the old passport down, steps on it with both feet promising herself/himself to walk with the new one and to dream boldly Individuals who can’t write should be encouraged to draw their old and new passports Notes for the facilitator Emphasise the importance of developing one’s identity rather than have someone else define it for them Emphasise that conventional planning says: Step 1: Articulate Vision. Step 2: Develop a Plan to Implement the Vision; but in this case, participants should not try to figure out how to make the visions happen and should not allow the voice that asks ‘if you are realistic, if the dream is implementable and how it will happen’ to prevail. Remind the participants to simply enjoy the dream! Also remind everyone not to make fun of other people’s dreams but rather to hoot, clap, and give praise. In closing, thank all for sharing their new passports and advise them to keep them safe. Inform the group that once a month, time will be put aside to talk about our dreams
A one hour lunch break and unwinding
2.5 Guardians - Providing Support To Each Other
Materials In this kind of training some people will be • Nothing special comfortable and others might not, at least not Participants always. Occasionally some topics or exercises might • All Pow Wow be difficult. Situations at work and home might also stakeholders be challenging and demanding. The participants need to support each other. Providing support will help them to recognise that everyone has something that they can offer to somebody else and to develop a bond of mutual dependability, while reminding themselves that relationships with each other can be delicious. There is tremendous power and a profound sense of community and support when sex workers cooperate. Those who stumble should be picked up with hope and encouragement. If any of the participants gets lost along the way, the guardian should mobilise others to send a wave of enthusiasm and support, that should activate her/his voice again. Process Each person is given the role of looking after someone else in the group Ask everyone to stand up in a circle and to join hands Then ask everyone to drop their hands and turn to their right. This will mean that each person in the circle is facing the back of someone else. Next, explain that in this kind of training it’s always a good idea for the participants to look after one another. Suggest that each person becomes the guardian of someone standing in front of them in the circle. In this way, each person will be looking after somebody and each person will have somebody looking after him or her. Ask each to turn to the centre of the circle. Explain that the role of each of them as a guardian is to keep an eye on the person they are looking after by asking them at the end of each session or between sessions how they are and if it’s going ok for them. When absent, they should find out why, and when unhappy, ask why. At the end of the explanation, ask if there are questions. Notes for the facilitator End the session by reading this quote from Elizabeth Kubler-Ross: “When you come to the edge of all the light you know and are about to step into the darkness of the unknown, faith is knowing that one or two things will happen: there will be something solid to stand on, you will be taught to fly”.
5 minutes break
24 Pow Wow: Training of Sex Workers
2.6 Group Norms Participants will be interacting and doing things together, so they need to develop norms to guide their behaviour. It is true that they are free thinking adults but it is still important to develop norms to hold them together, bearing in mind that at the end of the day, individuals will have to regulate themselves for the group to be effective.
Materials • Flip Chart • Felt tip pens Participants • All Pow Wow stakeholders
Process Ask the participants to go for a walk in pairs for ten minutes. During the walk, they should discuss what they want to see as group norms. After ten minutes, they go back to plenary and you ask each pair to present as creatively as possible. Give enough time e.g. 30 minutes for group discussions so that norms are not just routine but something people have thought about. Notes for the facilitator Emphasise that in order for the group to grow, thrive and benefit from the training, they need to be disciplined and committed. Re-emphasise the importance of confidentiality and respect for each other’s experiences, norms that might have been mentioned above. As you close, introduce the next topic by indicating that “Now that we know why we are here, have introduced ourselves and developed the norms for guiding the training, we want to talk about our expectations for the training”.
2.7 Expectations Normally people go for training with different expectations and it is important to harmonise them. The session will give an opportunity to all participants to voice their expectations. It will also give the resource person an opportunity to assess if the objectives were understood. If for example some one expects to make money when the training is not an income earner, then surely they have not understood the objectives of Pow Wow.
Materials • Flip Chart • Felt tip pens Participants • All Pow Wow stakeholders
Process Explain to the group that it is always a good idea for a resource person to find out what the participants are thinking. Ask each participant to share one hope and one fear about the training. Write them on a flip chart. Once everyone has stated a hope and a fear, comment: If any hopes are beyond the scope of meeting, explain by going back to the objectives. Reassure people about their fears. Ask each person to remember their hopes and fears so that at the end of the training, there is a review of all fears and hopes
15 minutes break
Notes for the facilitator If participants have expectations not covered in the training, they should be encouraged to take advantage of the expertise in the room and learn from each other during non-training times. For example, if someone is interested in how to prevent young people from joining the sex industry, that participant could arrange an informal evening session or a special table during break tea for those interested in this topic. Participants will be encouraged to set up study groups with peers living in the same geographical area. They will be free to formally organise a special event if appropriate. Volunteers will be asked to coordinate after-session activities to address these additional interests. There will also be volunteers for organising various activities and events. This takes pressure off the facilitator, and gives participants ownership of their training.
26 Pow Wow: Training of Sex Workers
2.8 Making A Contract With Self Keeping oneself accountable is a key to success. Even with all the information in the world and all the right intentions, it’s difficult to get very far if one lets herself/himself off the hook when it’s time to actually do what they should. Process Step 1: Ask the participants to identify their favourite excuses for not always sticking to what they were supposed to do.
Materials • Pens • Journal books Participants • All Pow Wow stakeholders
For example one of the most common excuses could be the idea that there aren’t enough hours in a day to fit in some training or do home work. That might be true on some days, but most likely isn't true all the time. If it is, then you’re probably not putting enough effort into time management, or you’re taking on responsibilities you don’t really have to take on, or putting yourself too low on your own list of priorities. Step 2: Identify appropriate countermeasures The solution to these problems is to begin telling oneself a different kind of story—one that puts an individual in charge. Step 3: Write up a contract for success This is a simple step, but it's the most important one. Ask the participants to write down their excuse-busters in the form of a contract with themselves. This contract is a visible reminder of the commitment they are making to themselves, as well as a handy tool for remembering both the problems and the solutions they are trying to focus on. If this is taken seriously, they will find it more difficult to break the contract than to simply make a vague decision to try harder or do better next time. Here’s a sample contract with a few common problems and countermeasures:
I, Hope, hereby agree and commit to take the following steps to improve my accountability to myself and increase my chance of ensuring that I will not miss a single training and that I will do my work. 1. If I miss one training, I will not let that one small slip-up convince me that I'm stupid, worthless, or a lost cause. I will respect myself by refusing to engage in verbal self-abuse, and I will find positive ways to comfort and support myself when I’m having a hard time. Specifically, I will… (Make a list of concrete things you will do instead of beating up on yourself or deciding your problems are too big to handle.) 2. I will not sacrifice my own needs to make other people happy, or do for them what they can and should be doing for themselves. When there is a conflict between my training plans and what other people want me to do, I will negotiate to find a reasonable solution that allows me to do what I need to do for myself. Keep time for ME. 3. I choose to be in charge of my own decisions and behaviour. I will not talk, think, or act as if my partner, child, spouse, customer or subconscious made me do it. I will ask myself what is most important to me at that moment and make my decision. If I don’t like the consequences, I will try something different the next time.
Notes for the facilitator Remind the participants to listen to themselves talk, and to identify the thoughts, attitudes or behaviours that are getting in the way of their success. Read the contract they made with themselves to do things differently. (does this mean the facilitator should remind them to read?) Explain that with a contract (if they stick to it) they will increase their accountability in no time and succeed at reaching their goals. Contracts must be written in a journal book
Dinner and rest
28 Pow Wow: Training of Sex Workers Day 2 Start the day sessions at 8.30 with a song: ‘Something inside so strong....’
2.9 Reflection Reflect on the previous day’s activities in order to connect the previous and the present. It will give the facilitators an idea regarding whether the participants understood or not. Process Each participant should be given about ten minutes to reflect on the previous day’s session. What was said? Are there some issues that they are still struggling with? Is there anything that struck them as they retired to bed? What are they looking forward to today? Notes for the facilitator Summarise yesterday’s proceedings and share the day’s programme
2.10 Promoting Rebel Leadership And Crossing The Line What most sex workers have in common is the nature of their work; it is hard work, intimate and can be abusive (just like domestic work). For change to happen extraordinary steps have to be taken and a few lines have to be crossed. It’s always important to find allies with the right tools, information, and strategic political knowledge to support the cause. An extraordinary leadership led by people perceived as rebels in society is needed. A movie should be shown to motivate and to excite. The one suggested is ‘The Help’.
Materials • Over head projector • Computer • Movie – The Help Participants • All Pow Wow stakeholders
In this movie three extraordinary women are determined to start a movement of their own that forever changes their town, and the way women - mothers, daughters, caregivers, friends - view one another. A deeply moving movie filled with poignancy, humour, and hope. The Help is a timeless and universal story about the lines we abide by, and the ones we don't. Objectives Motivate the participants to have faith in their cause, to dream and to see that change is possible Start the day on a high note Process Watch the movie together. Ask participants to break into groups of five and discuss what key issues they picked from watching the movie. The discussion should take 45 minutes. In a plenary session, ask the participants to report back what they discussed in groups and the lessons learnt. Notes for the facilitator Emphasise the importance of persistence and endurance in building a movement for social justice. Explain the importance of building an alliance with others who might not necessarily be sex workers. Talk about taking risks and developing a strategy in a movement. Highlight the importance of leadership and of voice.
30 Pow Wow: Training of Sex Workers
2.11 Team Building Teams do not just happen, they are built. Not only is team building important in any organisation and movement, it is also important when people train together. In order to explain how teams are built, a case study based on ‘The Beehive Model’ of team building is used. It compares the work of teams with the way bees behave in a hive. It raises awareness and understanding within the group about the importance of building teams and of what makes a successful team.
Materials • Printed case study Participants • All Pow Wow stakeholders
Objective Learning how to build teams from bees Process Start by asking the participants to share their understanding of teams. Ask individuals to share their experiences of team building and what made the team succeed or fail. Ask two volunteers to read the case study. After this, the participants should be asked to read it again, slowly and thoughtfully. Beehive model of team building (used with permission of the author, ChikuMalunga.) Bees live in hives with clear social organisation. Each hive has three types of bees, each with distinct work. The queen is responsible for laying eggs, the male drones for fertilising them, and the female workersfor gathering food and caring for the hive. Each type of bee is adapted for its work. The workers change their duties as their age increases. They start by feeding the larvae; then they ventilate and cool the hive by fanning it with their wings; then they clean the hive and finally they leave on food-collecting expeditions. Worker bees of different ages carry out all these varied tasks at any one time. The worker bees’ other main duty is to attack and, if necessary, sting intruders. When the worker uses her sting, her gut is usually ripped out and she dies soon afterwards. Her defence is therefore an act of suicide in which she sacrifices her life for the other bees. Social ties hold the bees in the hive together. The workers lick both the larvae and the queen when they are not busy working. The workers collect food for everyone in the hive. Worker bees out collecting food pass on messages to tell other bees where to find food. They do this by ‘dances’. On returning to the hive from the food source, two kinds of dances may be performed. If the food is less than 100 metres away the bee performs a dance in which it moves round and round in a tight circle telling the other bees food is near but not exactly where to find it. If the food is more than 100 metres away, another dance is performed which tells the other bees exactly where the food is.
After reading the story, participants should break into groups of five and discuss what they have learnt, being guided by the following questions:
Discussion starters
What makes bees an effective team? What can be learnt about gender dynamics from the model? How similar is this model to your current team situation in your organisation How different is it from your situation? Is there anything we could do differently to be a more effective team?
Notes for the facilitator People in every workplace/training talk about ‘building’ their team, ‘working’ as a team, and ‘my’ team, but few understand how to create the experience of team work or how to develop an effective team. Belonging to a team, in the broadest sense, is a result of feeling part of something larger than yourself. In a team-oriented environment, you contribute to the overall success of the group. You work with fellow members to produce the results. Without discipline and commitment, it’s difficult to build a team.
32 Pow Wow: Training of Sex Workers
2.12 Commitments and Moving Forward Pow Wow should be owned by all the participants, if not, it will not survive. Therefore before leaving the retreat, identify what needs to be done and assign people to do it. One suggestion is to create teams to work on various issues. For example different teams to be responsible for entertainment, health, effective learning, etc. Brainstorm on the responsibilities of each team. Ask for volunteers for each team. These volunteers will ensure that the training runs smoothly. Keep acknowledging and motivating them so that they value their work and take it seriously. Process  Name the groups: Each group in each country will name itself. Here is a suggestion: The whole group could be called Pow Wow scholars, in which case they would address one another that way (Explain what it means: ‘A Pow Wow scholar is someone who lives to learn and is good at it).
2.13 Topic: Reflecting On The Sessions and Debriefing In bringing the process to a close, it is important to get a feedback on the retreat. Objectives Encourage reflection and debriefing of the sessions. Provide an opportunity for structured sharing and networking in an active and fun fashion.
Materials • Whistle Participants • All Pow Wow stakeholders
Process Two participants pair up and stand back-to-back. The facilitator asks a question. The participants turn around and face each other and take turns sharing their responses. Pair-up participants. Ask each pair to stand back-to-back. If there is an extra person, they can form a group of three. Ask a debriefing question. Some debriefing questions you may want to consider are: o What do you think was the most important point during the retreat? o What do you think will be the most challenging idea to implement when training starts? o What do you think will be the easiest idea to implement when training starts? o Which idea do you think will receive the most resistance? o What questions do you still have about Pow Wow training? Reflect on the question. Ask each participant to reflect on the question and prepare a response. Blow the whistle. Ask each participant to turn around and face their partner. o Identify who will start the conversation. Use this selection process as an opportunity for the participants to learn a little known fact about each other. For example you might say: The person whose birthday is next in the calendar year will share first. The person who travelled the furthest to get to the retreat venue will share first. The person who has the most, (oldest, youngest) children will share first. Identify time limitations. Tell the participants they each have about 30 seconds to share. Blow the whistle. After about one minute, blow the whistle and ask the participants to find a new partner and stand back to back. Ask a new question. Continue as above. If time allows, ask three to five questions.
34 Pow Wow: Training of Sex Workers
2.14 End of the Launch Process The end of the launch should be as razor sharp as the beginning. Buy one big card and ask each participant to write a compelling message responding to these two questions: ‘Where are we headed in the end? What is the destination?’ It should be in an inspirational card that taps into feelings, something that hits in the belly. Before leaving, the facilitator provides a road map for the training.
Materials • (Greeting) Card • Music
Participants • All Pow Wow stakeholders
Leaving the retreat venue Pow Wow dance and sing, laugh and have fun as you leave the place. Ask the bus driver to play, ‘Something inside so strong....’ This is a song that should be played many times to motivate and to encourage everybody.
*********** END OF PART 2 **********
PART 3 
Key Training Topics for Sex Worker Participants
36 Pow Wow: Training of Sex Workers 3.1 TOPIC: HEART, MIND AND BODY (this session is likely to be emotionally loaded and requires a feminist counsellor as one of the resource persons) Wake up call
Materials • Flip chart • Felt tip pens
Participants Introduction • Pow Wow scholars Self-care and wellbeing have made a welcome comeback in feminist politics. They have been around for decades, but drifted out of focus and out of favour around the early 1990s as the dominant trends in women’s rights took other turns, and wellbeing was not considered political; even dismissed as Western-style navel-gazing. The return of wellbeing and self-care – driven by many factors including persistent burn out and growing risks faced by women activists – is most welcome, but often still sits as a separate space or methodology, and not fully integrated into our movement-building strategies and visions. As a result, we risk once again depoliticising self-care and losing its potential as a vehicle for strengthening alternative and more sustainable agendas, forms of organising, organisational cultures and leadership. Sex work can be violent, draining and could eventually take its toll on the heart, mind and body. Therefore there is no choice but to integrate and shape the Heart-Mind-Body process to become a critical force for movement-building. Here are some thoughts about how to continue and build the political potential of this strategy for further discussion, testing and learning. Objectives Ensure that the training equips the participants with knowledge related to taking care of themselves Connect self care to political work Tools: markers and flip charts Time: 5 hours Process Step 1: Context, moment and sex-workers lives are a critical starting point. Ask the participants to lie down, close their eyes and remember their working environment, their homes and their lives. What are some of the heart, body and mind issues that haunt them? What are the painful moments? What are those excruciating pain experiences that they dread? This should take about 30 minutes in a quiet peaceful place. Open eyes and share experiences. Give individuals time and space to open their emotional ‘tanks’. This is bound to be heavy so when everyone has shared, call for a break. Ask those who want to see a counsellor to write down their names. Create time for counselling.
After the break, invite individuals to share their coping strategies and write them down on paper. Engage with the strategies and tactfully question those which might be self destructive such as drugs, drinks, smoking or overeating. With the different strategies, individuals should be encouraged to learn from one another. Step 2: The River Format: Group exercise Time: 1½ hours Required materials: Coloured paper (6 pieces per participant), markers. Summary: This exercise is excellent for both identifying and sharing self-care strategies. Key explanation points: Ask each participant to sit for a few minutes with six pieces of paper on which they write the strategies that they employ to keep themselves well (in one or a few words). Each piece of paper will represent ‘stones’. Once a participant has finished writing out their strategies, they should set them out in the shape of an imaginary flowing river. Wait until all participants have placed their strategies along the length of the river. Then, ask each participant to walk down the river by stepping on the ‘stones’ (strategies) that they feel are important (it does not matter in which direction they walk along the river). Some may choose to step on their own stones, whereas others may just select the stones that resonate with them (not their own). When a participant stops on a stone, they are asked to explain why that stone (strategy) is important to them. The group simply listens to each participant, without making comments. After the session, the facilitators should lead a brief discussion on how the process went (how it felt, for deeper engagement you could go into the details of the strategies where necessary). It is possible also to post strategies up on the wall afterwards so that people are surrounded by them, and refer to them again later in the workshop and in summaries – to remind everyone of the many strategies available to them. Facilitation notes This exercise should be facilitated in a peaceful place, preferably in nature, if possible. It is a very focused and calming exercise, so facilitators need to set the tone for this. Note that in some contexts, participants would prefer not to step on the ‘stone’, for example, if spirituality or prayer has been listed as a strategy. It is fine for them to stand near the ‘stone’ instead. Step 3 Ask the participants to break into groups and discuss ‘How to build a wellness circle given the obstacles?’ (30 minutes) Report back into the plenary using whatever creative methods they can think of. The presentation should be followed by discussions.
38 Pow Wow: Training of Sex Workers Facilitator’s notes a) Common ground – the need – that might enable sex workers to reconnect and draw them together is trauma, burn out, and the pain they experience when doing their work. b) Emphasise the importance of creating space for the personal but making it explicitly political by indicating how what happens to the participants bodies affects how they treat each other, how they organise and how they treat their clients. c) The process so far should create openings and new energy for more conversation and connection. d) Allow space for more conversation. e) But where to go from here so that this promising start evolves into a collective organising process? There are several steps and options that the facilitator might consider in order to turn the participants’ personal renewal and reflection into an organising mode and through that identify a common agenda and begin to build a network for future action. Using the terms heart – mind – and – body (HMB) can be useful ways of also shaping the action strategy - ensuring that the strategy itself defends the participants’ bodies, the agendas reflect and channel their passions, values and anger (heart) and tap into their minds - (wise political choices shaped by a careful evaluation of power, interests and information)
It’s About Power Explain that understanding the different elements of power and applying it to heart-mindbody, can be a useful way of mapping a coherent strategy that takes into account the participants’ spiritual, psychological, and physical and safety needs. If we think of building alternative forms of power, we can then shape and integrate HMB from a power lens:
Power to – capacity to take action is not just ‘agency’; it has to do with physical, emotional, spiritual and psychological wellbeing; a sense of boldness and creativity as activists and leaders requires ongoing healing lest the participants bring their own bitterness into spaces.
Power within – a sense of one’s own dignity, profound sense of empowerment is always undermined by the doubt, shame, guilt, taboos and stigma produced by the fragmentation and exhaustion related to being both a sex worker and an activist; think of how much power within is still driven by ambition and fear – leading to corrupt forms of leadership and organisation.
Power with – we cannot construct sustainable collective power if we are unable to recognise and respect our differences for example, those related to working with male and LGBIT sex workers, deal with competition and fights for clients and for space, needs for recognition which all emerge from deep emotional, psychological and spiritual deficits and traumas.
And above all, mobilising these 3 alternative forms of power to engage power over – particularly the scariest forms of power over – the shadow or hidden forces and the invisible socialisation and ideology. Emphasise the need to create collective forms of
wellbeing in the form of strategies for protection and safety. Integrating risk and conflict analysis into all the strategies and organisational spaces is a HMB strategy. Facilitator’s tips: Below are some ideas for some action steps to expand and shape the HMB into a strategy: Build on the current training process to develop a simple methodology that encourages the participants to create their own circles of reflection, wellness and political memory that can function independently; this would require equipping the participants and providing minimal support for their work and documentation. Start to move the process (analysis and strategising) forward while keeping wellbeing firmly rooted in the process. The aim of the next moment would be to link personal realities to the political context today – keeping the analysis away from organisational politics, but facilitating a process of assessing power and risks and interests, and looking for common ground among the participants (continue to keep organisational politics out). Share short highlights that stress what issues/agendas the participants share in common (derived from what they have already shared) and how they can protect each other. The focus of the developing action strategy can then be shaped around two pillars – a) sustaining networks for influence and protection; and b) sharing information and strategic voice on urgent action and to weigh in on issues: i.
For building sex workers’ networks – personal ties and trust developed through the circles and sustained by SMS, virtual and face-to-face connection and then, turning these into protective webs – involve meetings for political analysis and risk assessment and the basics on the rights and options of sex worker activists combined with processes to create safety protocols. At this point, the role of sex workers’ organisations is critical and needs to be negotiated so that the vibrancy of the networks is not lost.
ii.
Establishing urgent action mechanisms and consider who to communicate with and when; how to strengthen both national, regional and international links through actors.
Final word: This session should really result in something concrete that goes beyond the participants. Homework: How would you build a wellness circle in your community?
40 Pow Wow: Training of Sex Workers
3.2 TOPIC: GENDER AND SOCIAL TRANSFORMATION Quote: Sexual, racial, gender violence and other forms of discrimination and violence in a culture cannot be eliminated without changing culture. Charlotte Bunch Wake up call: 1O min. Materials: Music Method 1.
Ask participants to form two concentric circles, facing each other, and to move around in opposite directions.
2.
After a few seconds, ask them to stop and pair up with the person standing opposite them in the other circle. You can use music to signal when it is time to move around and when to stop.
3.
Read out a statement about gender and ask the participants to react to it, talking about it in pairs for about one minute each.
4.
Ask them to move around again and repeat the exercise until they have talked about all the statements.
5.
Ask participants to form a large group again and comment on the exercise
A list of statements that the participants may commonly hear. For example: • • • • •
Men and women can never be equal because they are biologically different. Gender is just another word for women. The word gender is not translatable and therefore not relevant in our context. All this talk about gender brings conflict to the family. Work on gender should always respect people's social and cultural context.
Introduction Gender is fundamental to who we are, and to everything in almost all fields. It helps us to understand relations (social, economic and political). Gender analysis challenges familiar ideas and preconceptions about the relations between men and women, it challenges stereotypes about stigma and taboo related to sex and sexuality, it challenges identity and provides a new lens with which to look at the world. Objectives Enable participants understand how the construction of gender defines and shapes social, cultural, political, economic and institutional structures as well as individual experiences and perceptions
Provide an opportunity for the participants to appreciate how gender intersects with class, ethnicity, disability and sexuality to legitimize power and privilege between women and men, and LGBTIs
Build the capacity of participants to explore and define strategies for achieving social transformation and gender equality in development
Tools: Case studies, cards, felt pen and flip charts Process Part 1 Understand the concepts What gender is and how it differs from sex How gender is taught through socialisation and other influences How gender works in both the private and public spheres Meaning of related concepts (eg gender roles, gender discrimination, equality, equity and social transformation
stereotypes,
sexism,
Process Ask the participant to go to a township or market if there is one near the training venue for an hour (depending on distance). They should not go to a place far from the training venue, should be within walking distance. Ask them to observe men, women and children. They should observe activities and note on paper or in their heads who is doing what. While observing, they should work in groups of two, but the couples should scatter so that they don’t arouse suspicion. For example who is riding a bicycle and who is not? Who is selling what? Who is pregnant? Who owns a shop? After an hour, they should go back and give a feedback. Facilitator asks what lessons can be learnt from the observation? What can the group learn about gender roles, gender stereotypes, sexism, discrimination, equality and equity? Key learning points Sex is a biological fact while gender is a social construct, its about roles, previlleges, status and relations that society creates and allocates and that we learn from the moment we are born. We are born male and female. Masculinity and femininity are learnt. For example in most countries in Africa, women cook and men enjoy the food. However in restaurants, men cook. In some parts of Africa women don’t ride bicycles, whereas in other countries they do. A good example is northern Uganda; women ride bicycles whereas in the southern part of Uganda, they hardly and yet this is the same country. In Zimbabwe, if a woman wants to ride a bicycle, society does not frown but still there are fewer women who ride bicycles.
We learn to be gendered individuals through various means, eg family, peers, formal education, culture, religion, media and advertising, language and law. We also learn to demystify stereotypes when we have to do what we have to in order to survive. For example many poor women are travelling to china to buy and sell. Travel by air, for poor
42 Pow Wow: Training of Sex Workers women in Africa, was never heard of. There are some sex workers who have built themselves houses, yet ordinarily the job of building a house is supposed to be a man’s.
Society makes gender roles appear natural, and therefore unchangeable, constructing power hierarchies, that legitimise male control of women and children. Roles are changeable. Note the way women marry, abandon their names and carry men’s names just as the slaves used to. It’s rare to see a man carrying a child on the back and yet with HIV and AIDS and women dying, there are more and more men who carry children on the back (at least in Zimbabwe). These days women are heads of households and the number of kept men is on the increase. When a woman shows that she has power, she is called names including being called a prostitute or a witch.
Gender division of labour has direct implication for women and men’s equality and results in: overloading women with house work, , devaluation of their work, superior male access to valued resources , and men having greater control of public sector. It for this reason that gender roles are connected to resources and hence class
Gender defines the different roles, rights, responsibilities, obligations, and opportunities but also reflects the values, attitudes and behaviour of men and women. Understanding gender does not result in women having power over men but rather results in peace and harmony in homes and in society. Where there is gender equality, fights over power are minimised, the achievement of gender equality implies changes for both men and women and benefits both men and women
The role and impact of gender relations are not static, they shift with differing contexts and changes with different social groups, cultures, economic status, geographical location and historical time.
PART 2 Objectives Show how gender shapes and is shaped by some important institutions within our society, e.g. family, religious institutions and the work place. Reveal the patriarchal values that underlie the rules that govern common social norms as well as men and women’s interaction with the social structures of family, law, labour etc Acquire clearer understanding of the inequalities, discrimination, and double standards that apply to men and women in various aspects of life and appreciate the need for social transformation Process: In groups ask the participants to think about the families they come from (whichever way one defines a family), the schools they attended, religious faiths...what gender related messages do they hear? How have those messages shaped who they are? How is gender manifested at the family level? How does the family reflect and perpetuate gender roles? How does marriage fatherhood and motherhood sustain gender stereotypes? How is GBV, domestic abuse, rape, defilement, and incest, sexual harassment perpetuated? How is the violence sex workers suffer related to gender stereotypes?
Why are male sex workers abused? Why are tran-genders not accepted on society (at least majority of people dont)
Key learning points The institution of the family is a social construct and it plays a major role in defining our gender which in turn has implications for women’s and men’s sexuality Gender is a major factor in defining ones sexuality, regulating and constructing sexuality, egwho is considered a man and a woman. This construction has important implications for LGBIT Gender construction is related to issues of power (power over, power with, power to and power within) and disempowerment Gender inequality increases women’s economic insecurity and vulnerability to violence, sexual exploitation, and consequently, sexual and reproductive as well as other health problems, including HIV and AIDS etc. It ultimately has an adverse impact on national development. Note the way female sex workers are harassed and the clients, who in most cases are men, don’t. Social , cultural and reproductive values, norms and practices are directly related to and define the economic and health status of a family. For example the economic policies are generally defined by the men. Then there are some men who wont let wife work even if she is more qualified than a husband. Gender inequality has implications in the way girls perform at higher institutions of learning Home work: In what ways do gender related factors of vulnerabilitycontribute to severe forms of exploitation of sex workers?
PART 3: Body Map Objective
Identify values and attributes of the sexes and their influence on gender, stigma, and discrimination. Enable the participants appreciate the importance of sexual diversity
Materials: Flipchart sheets , Markers, PowerPoint presentation: Sexual Diversity (Available at: www.healthpolicyinitiative.com.) Copies of Handout: Sexual Diversity (see annex...) www.yogyakartaprinciples.org Time: 2 hours Process Divide participants into groups two groups. Ask half the teams to work on drawing the silhouette (shape, figure) of an ideal man, and the other half to draw the silhouette of an ideal woman. Once participants finish drawing, ask them to write the physical attributes of each sex on the right side of the
44 Pow Wow: Training of Sex Workers
silhouettes and the values each sex should possess on the left side. Allow 15 minutes for this portion of the activity. Next, ask participants to take 20 minutes to discuss in their small groups what would happen if that ideal man or woman wanted to change his or her sex. Each small group should respond to the following questions: What would the ideal man/woman have to modify about his/her body in order to be the other sex? What mental changes, values, and roles would he or she have to modify to change sex? What social consequences would the person need to confront with a sex change? Once participants have responded to the questions, ask them to make a new drawing representing the new ideal man/woman. Ask each team to present its fictitious person and the responses to the questions. Allow about 10 minutes per group. After completing the presentations, facilitate a plenary discussion on how the values and attributes of each sex influence the way we perceive roles and how these in turn influence gender. Talk about sexual diversity and distribute Hand out (see annex for hand out..
PART 4 Social transformation and development Objectives Understand how gender identity is linked to poverty. Learn how gender inequality and inability to appreciate sexual diversity harms the well being of women and LGBIT especially sex workers. Appreciate what the women’s and LGBIT movements have achieved in protecting marginalised women’s rights4 and promoting LGBTI Rights Introduction to transformative development Acquire basic gender analysis skills for gender planning Discuss some social survival skills Process Ask the participants to work in groups of four (for 45 min) and use skits/debates/jokes/songs to show a) How gender related stereotypes manifest in the work that they do: For example a good woman should have a husband and have sex with that one husband. b) Health and how gender stereotypes affect sex-workers access to health 4
Example: As a continent, Africa has made significant progress in creating the space at policy level for discussion of sexual and reproductive health and rights. Since the International Conference on Population and Development held in Cairo, Egypt in 1994, the African Union has adopted the Protocol on the Rights of Women in Africa (Maputo Protocol),the Plan of Action on Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights (Maputo Plan of Action), and the Campaign on Accelerated Reduction of Maternal Mortality in Africa (CARMMA).These continent-wide efforts have boosted the possibility of creating national policies on a wide variety of issues including gender-based violence, access to reproductive healthcare and a focus on sexualities education, among others.
c) Social survival skills employed by the sex workers d) Connection between development and oppression based on gender After each group reports back, ask the group members to raise critical questions and issues. Notes for the facilitator The social marginalization and economic and political disempowerment of women and girls particularly sex workers; in many parts of the world is a major inhibiting factor to achieving their rights and equality. Gender has a big impact on development especially in terms of fulfilling people ‘needs such as food, shelter, education, employment and clothes. The closer a country is to gender equality, the more it develops Women’s rights and roles in society are fundamentally undermined under existing systems of patriarchy and some rights cannot be achieved without looking at the root causes of violations, which are grounded in the system. Sex workers are abused first as women and then as sex workers and there could also be elements of class. Women united are more powerful and better able to claim their rights and hence the importance of movement building The global, regional and national movements for gender equality have achieved some significant successes over the past four decades (please mention these successes) Law reform is necessary but not sufficient tool for realising social justice and transformation it must be supplemented and augmented with gender awareness , power analysis, education, and advocacy for all men, women, children and others Social transformation increases equality and equity Social survival and transformation skills are important in enhancing individual self esteem, leadership opportunities and career progression. Its also important for affirming sex workers and giving them confidence to their work without feeling guilty. Ending the session: 20 minutes Suggested approach 1. Distribute cards. 2. Ask the participants to write down a key lesson learned on the topic. 3. Ask some of the participants to read what they have written. 4. After each participant has read their evaluation, ask them to post it on a designated part of the wall. 5. When a substantial number of participants have already read their evaluation, ask the rest to post their evaluations on the wall. 6. Summarize the main points written by the participants.
46 Pow Wow: Training of Sex Workers 3.3 TOPIC: UNSHACKLING OUR MENTAL BONDAGE by dismantling patriarchy, and understanding feminism Centring Facilitator: Welcome the participants. Explain that the work that is going to be done requires some creativity and energy. Ask them to do the following exercise which should take about 15 minutes. ‘Lie down on your back, and close your eyes. Let your breath soften and deepen. Breathe relaxation into each part of your body, starting with your toes, flowing all the way up to your throat and face. When you feel quiet, bring your awareness to the inside of your body. Explore inner regions, the space inside your skin. Can you feel where your creativity pulse is right now? Is it located in your vulva, rib cage or your feet? What shape does it take? Does it have a colour, smell or sound? Stay with your creativity when you find it. See if it changes form, if it moves from one part of your body to another. Does it have its own voice? What might it want to say to you? Listen carefully. The wisdom that often rises from the body can be stunning. When you are ready, share your encounter. Warm up provocation: It takes a bad woman to change the world: Those who agree go to one side of the room and those who disagree on the other side. Brainstorm for 10 minutes and leave it there. Ensure that no one monopolises the space, give other people air space! As you discuss feminism you will revisit this debate. As we begin… In most of our societies, the man is the leader, the head of the house, he may earn more money for doing the same job, and is generally respected and on top of the world. He ‘rules’ it. Why is this so? Are baby girls preferred to baby boys in your culture? Why are many women disadvantaged economically, socially, and politically? What do we call the situation where women are not supposed/expected to do certain things simply because they are women? What have women and some men done over the years, to improve the situation of women in society and to give them a better chance? What can we do to change the attitude among both men and women, that women are lesser beings? Who cares about this situation anyway? Do the governments have policies on patriarchy? What do they say about feminism? This session will focus on issues of patriarchy and feminism – where they came from, and where they are going. Get ready to open up your minds to new ideas and ways of doing things for the benefit of women. They will also focus on the situation of transgender and male sex workers. How will this help? By the end of this session, participants should: Have a clear understanding of what patriarchy is Understand the origin of patriarchy and how it is experienced Be able to clearly define feminism; its different visions and approaches; and its developments over time Understand factors that worsen patriarchy
Know the challenges faced by feminists internationally in their daily lives Have concrete examples on successes achieved by feminists Our tools Flip charts and felt pens Pens and papers Small cards with definitions of some terms Simple fact sheets to be distributed at the end LET’S GET WORKING… Step 1: Good woman, Bad woman Time: Aim: Materials:
2 hours To help participants understand the meaning of patriarchy, using real-life examples. Flip charts and felt pens
Process: The facilitator divides participants into two groups. One group will have the task of describing what they think a ‘good woman’ is, by drawing her on a flip chart and explaining her characteristics. How should she behave, talk, walk, dress, etc? The second group will concentrate on what they think a ‘bad woman’ is, and also draw her and show her attributes. Each group will choose a volunteer to present to all the other participants. Tips for facilitation: This exercise will help participants to bring out the issues of patriarchy by themselves, thus understand them better. Emphasise to them that their descriptions of a good and bad woman have been ingrained in them by their society, cultures, and religions. Therefore, these may be totally different in other societies. Stress the fact that societies and cultures have played a big role in keeping patriarchy in place, ensuring male domination and female subordination. Worse still, perpetrators are often women, but then again, it is what they have been brought up to believe. Many ti mes, we support it unconsciously. Governments are also promoters of patriarchy. Some men also face issues of being dominated, for example in cultures where some tribes are perceived to be below others. Young men are dominated by older men. Fathers dominate decision making about family resources and exclude their sons as well as their daughters from having equal ownership and control over productive resources and the income derived from the labour of the children and the wives. Boys and men who do not appear or act ‘manly’ enough are often ridiculed and punished in our society, and socialised to fit patriarchal concepts of masculinity. Generally, patriarchy and the way it oppresses keeps changing over time, it is not static. Explain that sexualities are socially constructed (usually by patriarchal men), and therefore are heavily influenced by, and implicated within, social, cultural, political and economic
48 Pow Wow: Training of Sex Workers forces. Patriarchal men and custodians of patriarchy resent men who dilute their manhood by behaving like women. They also resent women who behave as if they do not need men in their lives (lesbians) and hence the hostility and what has come to be known as corrective rape. Step 2: Digging up the roots Time: Aim: Materials:
30 minutes To give the participants a brief history of the origin of patriarchy and why we continue to face it daily. Small cards with definitions of some terms; information sheets
Process: The facilitator can give a short talk on how patriarchy started, and what is keeping it thriving. The facilitator should also distribute the small cards, on which correct definitions of the term are written. Tips for facilitation: For a start, the facilitator can do the talking, but should allow some questions and comments so that the group airs their thoughts, especially when it comes to why patriarchy continues to survive. Ensure that you use locally relevant examples. Emphasise that patriarchy is seen in the family, education, religion, the media, politics, the economy, health practices, the government, and legal processes. Step 3: Have you been there? Time: Aim: Materials:
1 hour For participants to do personal storytelling and have a reflection exercise about an experience of discrimination they have faced due to gender/sex Pens and papers
Process: This part has two phases. Firstly, each participant will be given a small paper on which they can write down one example of unfairness/discrimination they have faced because of being a woman. They should not include their names. These will be read out by the facilitator and discussed by the group. For the second phase, four volunteers from the group can come out and tell their stories to the rest. These should be about situations where they suffered because they are women, challenges they faced, who helped them, and if they were able to do anything about their condition. Tips for facilitation: This is a session of sharing and may get emotional as people remember what they have suffered. It should be held in a cosy, comfortable, quiet and safe room, where participants can open up. Remind participants that there should be minimal interruptions, and no judgemental attitudes. If you are not part of the solution, you are part of the problem
Step 4: A special woman Time: Aim: Materials:
30 minutes To give participants knowledge on origins of feminism, and an example of a woman who brought about remarkable change. The story
Process: Read out the story to the group. Tips for facilitators: Read this out slowly, explaining where certain concepts may be hard. Ensure that you give them information on the origin of feminism and how it has developed over time. Elizabeth Blackwell (1821 – 1910) - the first woman to graduate from medical school; pioneer in educating women in medicine Born in England, Elizabeth Blackwell was educated in her early years by a private tutor. Samuel Blackwell, her father, moved the family to the United States in 1832. He died in, leaving the family without financial resources. Elizabeth Blackwell, her two older sisters Anna and Marian, and their mother opened a private school in Cincinnati to support the family. Elizabeth became interested, in the topic of medicine and particularly in the idea of becoming a woman physician, to meet the needs of women who would prefer to consult with a woman about health problems. She said much later that she was also seeking a "barrier" to matrimony. Elizabeth Blackwell went to Henderson, Kentucky, as a teacher, and then to North and South Carolina, where she taught school while reading medicine privately. She said later, "The idea of winning a doctor's degree gradually assumed the aspect of a great moral struggle, and the moral fight possessed immense attraction for me." And so in 1847 she began searching for a medical school that would admit her for a full course of study. Elizabeth Blackwell was rejected by all the leading schools to which she applied, and almost all the other schools as well. When her application arrived at Geneva Medical College at Geneva, New York, the administration asked the students to decide whether to admit her or not. The students, reportedly believing it to be only a practical joke, endorsed her admission. When they discovered that she was serious, both students and townspeople were horrified. She had few allies and was an outcast in Geneva. At first, she was even kept from classroom medical demonstrations, as inappropriate for a woman. Most students, however, became friendly, impressed by her ability and persistence. Elizabeth Blackwell graduated first in her class in January, 1849, becoming thereby the first woman to graduate from medical school, the first woman doctor of medicine in the modern era. She decided to pursue further study, and, after becoming a naturalised United States citizen, she left for England. After a brief stay in England, Elizabeth Blackwell entered training at the midwives course at La Maternite in Paris. While there, she suffered a serious eye infection which left her blind in one eye, and she abandoned her plan to become a surgeon. From Paris she returned to England, and worked at St. Bartholomew's Hospital with Dr. James Paget. It was on this trip that she met and became friends with Florence Nightingale. In 1851 Elizabeth Blackwell returned to New York, where hospitals and dispensaries uniformly refused her association. She was even refused lodging and office space by landlords when she sought to set up a private practice, and she had to purchase a house in which to begin her practice. She began to see women and children in her home. As she developed her practice, she also wrote lectures on health, which she published in 1852 as The Laws of Life; with Special Reference to
50 Pow Wow: Training of Sex Workers the Physical Education of Girls. In 1853, Elizabeth Blackwell opened a dispensary in the slums of New York City. Later, she was joined at the dispensary by her sister Emily Blackwell, newly graduated with a medical degree, and by Dr. Marie E. Zakrzewska, an immigrant from Poland whom Elizabeth had encouraged in her medical education. A number of leading male physicians supported their clinic by acting as consulting physicians. Having decided to avoid marriage, Elizabeth Blackwell nevertheless sought a family, and in 1854 adopted an orphan, Katharine Barry, known as Kitty. They remained companions into Elizabeth's old age. In 1857, the Blackwell sisters and Dr.Zakrzewska incorporated the dispensary as the New York Infirmary for Women and Children. Zakrzewska left after two years for Boston, but not before Elizabeth Blackwell went on a year-long lecture tour of Great Britain. While there, she became the first woman to have her name on the British medical register (January 1859). These lectures, and personal example, inspired several women to take up medicine as a profession. When Elizabeth returned to the United States in 1859, she resumed work with the infirmary. During the Civil War, the Blackwell sisters helped to organise the Women's Central Association of Relief, selecting and training nurses for service in the war. This venture helped to inspire the creation of the United States Sanitary Commission, and the Blackwells worked with this organisation as well. A few years after the end of the war, in November 1868, Elizabeth Blackwell carried out a plan that she'd developed in conjunction with Florence Nightingale in England: with her sister, Emily Blackwell, she opened the Women's Medical College at the infirmary. She took the chair of hygiene herself. This college was to operate for thirty-one years, but not under Elizabeth Blackwell's direct guidance. She moved the next year to England. There, she helped to organise the National Health Society and she founded the London School of Medicine for Women. An Episcopalian, then a Dissenter, then a Unitarian, Elizabeth Blackwell returned to the Episcopal church and became associated with Christian socialism. In 1875, Elizabeth Blackwell was appointed professor of gynecology at the London School of Medicine for Children, founded by Elizabeth Garrett Anderson. She remained there until 1907 when she retired after a serious fall downstairs. She died in Sussex in 1910. During her career Elizabeth Blackwell published a number of books. In addition to the 1852 book on health, she also wrote: 1871: The Religion of Health; 1878: Counsel to Parents on the Moral Education of Their Children; 1884: The Human Element in Sex; 1895, her autobiography: Pioneer Work in Opening the Medical Profession to Women; 1902: Essays in Medical Sociology http://womenshistory.about.com/od/blackwellelizabeth/a/eliz_blackwell.htm
Step 5: Soul searching Time: Aim:
Materials:
30 minutes For participants to think through whether they are feminists or not. At the same time, this will help them become clear as to what a feminist is and what feminism involves. None
Process: Divide the room into two. Make one side for feminists and another for non-feminists. Ask participants who think they are feminists to go to the feminist side of the room, and those who think they are not to go to the other of the room. Give a chance to each participant to reveal why they think they are a feminist or not. The rest of the group should agree or
disagree with their reason, so that the participant either remains in their group or crosses over. Tips for facilitator: This exercise will help the group explore their beliefs on what makes one a feminist. These beliefs often play a role in somebody’s decision to be a feminist or not. It is also an opportunity to give them correct information on feminism, including its definitions. Also stress to them the different types of feminism (see fact sheet at the end of this document). Explain too that women are not the same. Women differ, depending upon their class, rural or urban poor location, nationality, ethnicity or race, disability, and aspects of social relations. Women have more in common with men in the same exploited class of labouring peasants, workers and small scale traders on many issues pertaining to economic and social justice than with women in the propertied and governing classes. Indeed, working women – and men – are exploited by women capitalist employers as well as men; and find their citizenship rights trampled upon by powerful women and men in the state. Gender5 relations between women and men, young and old, parents and children, also differ depending upon the same structural relationships of class, ethnicity, rural-urban location, and so on. Transformative feminism identifies itself first and foremost with the struggles and demands of the exploited labouring/working women.
Step 6: The demonic feminist Time: Aim:
Materials:
30 minutes To help participants explore the forces that cause feminism to be looked at as a bad thing, and the construction of the demonic feminist (man-hating, childspurning, lesbian, strident, aggressive, frustrated, etc.), Flip charts and felt tip pens
Process: Divide the participants into three groups. Each will have a brief discussion on what factors around us are supporting the idea of feminists being wicked, terrible, frustrated people. They shall write these on flip charts and present to the other groups. Tips for facilitators: Emphasise that there are certain negative and positive things associated with feminism as per our different societies and cultures. Stress the link between patriarchy and feminism, because as feminists try to change the situation, they are striking at the heart of patriarchy. They are challenging power. Stress that many people in society prefer the status quo (they want things to remain the way they have always been). Remember to ask the participants, how do they, as sex workers, perceive and understand the world, and themselves in it? How do they respond to patriarchy and class, individually and collectively? Can they remember a time when they resisted? Step 7: If there was no feminism… 5
Gender refers to the social relations between women and men, girls and boys, young and old, which are marked by male domination and female subordination. Gender analysis therefore focuses, unapologetically, on women/girls as the most oppressed, exploited, subordinated sex. Women are more exploited and oppressed than men within the same exploited class. For example, male sex workers are as much exploited as the women sex workers. However, a male sex worker can also oppress a female sex worker even if they are in the same class. Critics who argue that gender should mean equal attention to women and men misunderstand its origins and its purpose.
52 Pow Wow: Training of Sex Workers
Time: Aim: Materials:
30 minutes This exercise will help participants identify the benefits that they are enjoying due to the brave work by feminists over time. None
Process: The facilitator will ask each individual to mention something they would not have now (as per their context), if feminists had not fought for these rights earlier on. Each person must begin with the sentence “If there was no feminism…I would not…” (e.g. if there was no feminism, I would not have gone to school). Each thing mentioned should be unique, and not have been said by somebody else. Tips for facilitators: Make this fun! Summary of key messages The term patriarchy essentially means the rule of the father or the patriarch (a male member of the household or society) By its very nature, it is rooted in the suppression of women. Patriarchal cultures uphold the privileges of men based on gender, social structures, religious practices, class, and legal codes. It starts in the family, by socialisation, then moves to other aspects of life and institutions such as education and religion. Patriarchy is related to class, neo-colonialism and capitalism (these terms need to be explained in simple words that the participants can connect with. Patriarchy has been a part of society for so long. Getting rid of it is a big challenge requiring determination, motivation, enhanced individual and collective power and action (for amplified voice), and knowledge to inform and persuade activist leadership and strategic political engagement. Patriarchy has caused death and suffering among families and women in particular. Male sex workers are despised because they are seen to ‘unsettle’ patriarchy by behaving like women. Even though men are more privileged under patriarchy than women, some men are more privileged than others. Rape of women has played and continues to play a key role in patriarchy, e.g. during wars and as an outlet for men’s aggressive behaviour. Marriage is another vehicle that promotes and worsens patriarchy. British suffragist and journalist Rebecca West famously said, “Feminism is the radical notion that women are people.” In other words, feminism is a commitment to achieving the equality of sexes. Feminists oppose sex discrimination and class exploitation in the personal sphere of home and community, as well as in the public space of school, religion, the market place, and politics. Feminists believe that the personal is political. For example governments’ efforts to regulate and control personal dimensions of sex workers private lives on behalf of patriarchy are highly political. Take the examples of making sex work illegal, abortion inaccessible and regulating how people dress. All of these illustrate public invasions of private space. There is no one feminism, it can be socialist, reformist, or radical (explain what these terms mean). It can also be African in the sense that in Africa we are concerned about
discrimination but we are also products of colonialism which caused its own discrimination. Although feminists still face many challenges, we must appreciate the successes that they have achieved. In the case of sex workers, it is important to build a broad transformative feminist movement led and composed of sex workers and other marginalised women, which will act as a powerful pressure group decriminalising sex work, that cannot be silenced nor co-opted.
Types of feminism and their views on sex work According to radical feminists… Women’s oppression is the most fundamental form of oppression. It is the model for all other kinds of oppression. A sex worker, in their view, does not act out of free choice but is a victim of coercion in both its most subtle and direct forms. Existential feminists says… Sex work allows women an avenue of escape from dependency on men in a way that does not leave them victims, but empowered women. Equality of rights and freedom between the sexes is desirable. While believing that women are oppressed by an inequality between the sexes they also believe there is an escape by economic means. Liberal feminists believe that… Sex work is conceived of in the contractual sense of being a private business transaction. The liberal contends that a woman is free to enter into contracts. Liberal feminists believe that personal “rights” should predominate over concerns for the social good. They want to free women from oppressive gender roles. Marxist feminism… Marxists are opposed to any social or political action that perpetuates the enslavement and oppression of members of the work force. To them, sex work is a form of labour and therefore falls under the designation of a corruption of wage labour. Karl Marx himself asserted that “prostitution is only a specific expression of the general prostitution of the labourer.” Sex workers may feel that they are free, but looking at the larger economic picture in Marxist terms, they are in reality oppressed workers reinforcing and perpetuating an exploitative capitalistic scheme. The view of Socialist feminism is that… Oppression has psychological and social roots. Socialists share a genuine concern for women that transcends politics. Their focus is on people, not profits. To the socialist feminist, the sex worker is a victim of the corruption of a society which accompanies class distinctions. The oppression of class in a materialistic society degrades people by categorising them in a particular class and objectifying them so that they are merely parts of a mechanism that can be replaced by other parts of the same description. (Taken from http://www.feministissues.com/marxist.html)
54 Pow Wow: Training of Sex Workers African feminism... African feminism links struggles of women and men against all major forms of exploitation, oppression, human rights violations and discrimination, including male domination, class exploitation, imperial domination, corruption, authoritarianism and dictatorship, racism, ethnicism, fundamentalisms, traditionalism, and discrimination on the basis of disability, HIV, age, sexual orientation and gender identity. Transformative feminism seeks to build an alternative world based on participatory democracy in economics, politics, culture and ideology. (reference: Charter of African Feminists)
3.4 TOPIC: BREAKING THE SILENCE: OUR SEXUAL AND REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH AND RIGHTS Warm up: What do clothes say about people? Topic: Breaking the silence: Our sexual and reproductive health and rights Let us begin… How simple do we find it to talk about our sexual and reproductive health in our daily conversations? Without any trouble, we discuss politics, poverty, hair, children, makeup, any other topic but sexual and reproductive health. How easy is it to march into a clinic and explain to the doctor that you think you have a sexually transmitted infection, especially as a woman? Why is this so? Could it be due to the fact that society has isolated sexual and reproductive health, it’s a forbidden, ‘bad language’ subject that should not be talked about in public. Expressing sexuality, pleasure, intimacy and comfort with sex is even worse. You will be called a loose woman with no morals, who should not mix with others. Today, we are going to learn that there is much, more to sexual and reproductive health than what our societies and cultures say. These are very important issues to women, and we need to take care of ourselves physically, sexually, socially, psychologically, and emotionally in order to have good sexual and reproductive health. It is our right. It does not matter whether you are male or female, adult or youth, married or unmarried. How will this help? By the end of this session, participants should: Know what sexual health and reproductive health is (have correct information) Know their different sexual and reproductive health rights Differentiate between sex and sexuality Identify the ways in which women are portrayed as sexual objects Know the laws protecting their sexual and reproductive health and rights Identify common taboos associated with sexual and reproductive health Be aware of the need for good sexual and reproductive health Our tools Pens and papers Flip charts and felt tip pens Simplified booklets on sexual and reproductive health and rights (to be given to participants at the end) Print of common STD Transport (mini-bus) LET’S GET BUSY… In this session, many techniques will be used. For some more sensitive issues, participants will be asked to write their thoughts on paper, without putting their names. These will then be discussed by the group. There will also be group exercises and presentations. The facilitator will also give information for some issues.
56 Pow Wow: Training of Sex Workers Step 1: Our secrets Time: Aim: Materials:
30 minutes To help participants begin to open up about the topic of sexual and reproductive health, that many people find difficult to talk about. Flip charts and felt pens
Process: i. Ask the participants to step in their bodies, and go into the dark places where they store all their sexual related secrets and un-told stories. Shine a light into the corner. What can you see? Facilitator asks participants to write on a paper one secret they have concerning sex that they have discovered as they shone the torch. They don’t have to include their names. (examples: painful sex, unhealthy discharge, shrinking vagina, for those on hormones such as transsexuals, issues might be different‌) ii. The facilitator will read out each secret, and this information will be discussed as a group. Tips for facilitation: Emphasise to the group that everybody has a secret, but most of these are influenced by our cultures, societies, and lack of knowledge of our rights. They also remain secrets because of the silence around sex and sexuality. Now is the time to unwrap! Allow some comments and questions as well. Step 2: Mapping our bodies Time: Aim: Materials:
45 minutes To make sure that all participants are aware of what the sexual and reproductive organs are and the different roles each part plays. Flip charts and felt pens
Process: Divide participants into couples and give each flip charts and felt pens. Each partner of each group should take turns lying down on the life-size paper while their partner traces an outline of their body. Participants then fill in outlines of the body, with eyes, mouths, breast, vaginas and other body parts. They can label their body maps some with literal parts, others with metaphorical and symbolic titles and make a presentation of their body map. Tips for facilitation: This should be fun and educative. Make sure that at the end of this session, everybody understands which parts of their body are the sexual and reproductive organs. Step 3: Understanding words This involves basic definitions by facilitator: each should lead to a longer discussion Time: Aim: Materials:
30 minutes To give the group correct information on what sexual health, reproductive health, and sexuality are. Flip charts and markers
Process: This should be an interactive discussion. The facilitator should first ask individuals in the group to volunteer their definitions of the various terms. There will be a flip chart on the wall for each term, under which the participants’ responses will be written. The facilitator will guide this discussion, and finally give correct definitions where necessary. Tips for facilitation: The facilitator must be knowledgeable about these definitions and have various examples that are easy to understand. Let the participants express themselves, and make sure you correct any misconceptions. Sexual health is when a person does not have disease, infections, or illness associated with sexual behavior. It also includes feeling well sexually, having self-esteem, self-expression, caring for others, and cultural values. It can be described as the positive combination of physical, emotional, intellectual and social aspects of sexuality (facilitator to give examples of good and bad sexual health). Reproductive health is a state of complete physical, mental and social wellbeing and not just the absence of disease in all matters relating to the reproductive system and to its functions and processes. People with good reproductive health have a satisfying and safe sexual life, can have children, and can choose whether they would like to have children, when, and how (e.g. family planning). Sexuality: This is not just about sex. Sexuality includes sex, gender, sexual orientation, eroticism, intimacy, reproduction, and pleasure. It is experienced and expressed in thoughts, fantasies, desires, values, roles, practices, attitudes, beliefs, and relationships. Human sexuality is influenced by interactions of biological, social, political and economic, cultural, psychological, religious, legal, political, historical and spiritual factors. Step 4: Are women sexual objects? Time: Aim: Materials:
1 hour To explore and establish how societal factors contribute to and shape our society’s attitudes about women, their sexuality, and their reproductive rights. None
Process: This is another group exercise. Each group is asked to look at how proverbs, songs, movies, television programmes, and radio advertisements portray women and girls. Each group will make a presentation on the key message that comes out in relation to women and girls. Tips for facilitation: Encourage the groups to think about situations they meet daily in their lives and the way in which these depict women. Stress to them the fact that despite the changes to women’s roles over the years, the way society thinks about women has not changed. It is often worse for those that do not fit within the commonly accepted ways of life, who exercise their sexual and reproductive health rights differently.
58 Pow Wow: Training of Sex Workers Step 5: We know our sexual and reproductive health rights Time: Aim: Materials:
45 minutes For group members to share their knowledge and learn about sexual and reproductive health rights. Flip charts and felt tip pens
Process: The facilitator can create two groups. One will describe what they think sexual rights are, and the other will discuss reproductive rights. They will write their answers on flip charts and present to the rest. This will then be up for discussion and correction by everybody. Tips for facilitation: Emphasise that everybody, regardless of age, gender, economic class, job, etc., has sexual and reproductive health rights which must be respected.Allow questions and comments, and correct any misconceptions. Step 6: Our stories Time: Aim: Materials:
2 hours For participants to share their stories about sexual and reproductive health in order to open up to others, encourage each other and get advice. None
Process: The facilitator asks some participants to volunteer and tell others what barriers they have faced in trying to have good sexual and reproductive health as they work. This is an open discussion, led by the facilitator. It should be held in a place where participants are comfortable, e.g. sitting on the floor, in a closed room. They need to be able to confide in each other, and pour their hearts out. They should talk about both successes and failures. Tips for facilitation: Allow some comments but stress that the purpose of sharing is for people to know they are not alone as they go through different problems. Emphasise that participants are not there to judge each other. Step 7: Ask the experts Time: Aim: Materials:
1 hour To teach the group about their sexual and reproductive health rights, different laws in existence, and where they can seek help. None
Process: This is a question and answer session. It can be held in a relaxing environment, like under a tree. A facilitator who is knowledgeable about different laws educates participants about their sexual and reproductive health and rights through a question and answer session. Participants should be free to ask anything related to these rights. Tips for facilitation: Encourage participants to ask questions, and make sure these are answered well. Let them know that although there are international laws to which many countries are signatories, there are also local laws at national level. Give examples of these local laws, especially when participants are from one country.
Step 8: Learning exercise: Study visit Arrange a visit to an STD clinic or a hospital. At the clinic the participants should have a chance to interview the clinic staff. The purpose of the interviews is to get an idea about how the clinic runs, what kinds of STD are treated there, how they are treated and what kind of followup is done. Process: Identify a clinic and write a letter asking if the participants can visit. Ask participants to come respectfully dressed for going out. Some possible questions for staff: (a) Which STD do you see the most often? (b) How are they usually treated? (c) Do you do definitive diagnostic testing, or do you treat according to symptoms? (d) Do you test for HIV infection? Which patients do you test? (e) Do you provide patient education about the STD you treat? (f) How is the education done? Step 9: What can we do for ourselves? Time: Aim: Materials:
30 minutes Participants come up with innovative ways in which to improve on their sexual and reproductive health and to protect their rights. Flip chart and felt tip pens
Process: The facilitator leads a discussion on how participants can protect their sexual and reproductive health and rights. Each idea will be noted on a flip chart, so that participants can later note down the ones they feel are best for them. Tips for facilitation: Make this fun, and make sure each participant raises an idea. As we conclude… Without access to correct information, we shall have sexual and reproductive ill health and eventually death. Everybody has a right to good sexual and reproductive health. It is even more important in this day and age, when HIV/AIDS is everywhere and still has no cure. Openness about sexual and reproductive health is key to avoiding illness. Our societies and cultures have made us think discussing sexual and reproductive health is bad. It is not. Even when society disrespects us, it is important to value our bodies as women. There are various sexual and reproductive health rights that we all have. Everybody has the right to make their own decisions about their sexual and reproductive health, without being forced or discriminated against. Sexual and reproductive health is not just about sex. It’s also about how we feel about ourselves, how we relate to others and our place as females.
60 Pow Wow: Training of Sex Workers Give hand out...on sexual transmitted diseases Home work: Use a mirror to look at your vagina, vulva or penis6. Write a letter of gratitude to it. Don’t write negative words such as smelly and disgusting. Find a way to celebrate your V or P as a source of pleasure and survival. Reading out the letters to the whole group is optional. Song and closing circle Objective: to finish the session on a happy note Description: Participants sing a funny, happy song of their choice. Process:
1. Ask participants to sing a song , preferably one to which they can dance, a happy song 2. Join if you can, with dancing too even if you are a poor dancer. 3. Thank them for participating and ask each to mention one very important thing they have leant today and what is going to change in their lives as a result of the session.
4. Ask if there are more questions about the session. 5. Remind them about time for the next meeting. 6. Ask those responsible for ensuring that training goes smoothly to stay behind for the review of the session. (Remember at the launch people were given responsibilities) Time for facilitators/resources persons feedback Meet other facilitators, brief them on the session and what you learnt from the participants. so that there is coordination. There might be information which might help other facilitators to structure their own sessions. Don’t share confidential information as trust is important. It might not always be possible to meet co-facilitators, in which case writing to them might be the next best thing.
6
We include penis here but usually penises don’t suffer public humiliation as much as vaginas. With male sex workers and trans genders the case might be different.
3.5 TOPIC: TRAINING ON THE LEGAL RIGHTS OF SEX WORKERS Warm up Ask the participants to share stories regarding the part of their bodies that they have treated poorly and apologise to it. Should be fun. Take 10 minutes. Key issues Violence against sex workers should be one of the persistent human rights concerns. Historically the law reflects one aspect of the civil discourse on sex workers. Unpunished crimes of murder rape, assault battery, robbery coercion and harassment perpetrated against sex workers reveal both society and legal systems apathy towards sex workers. Sex workers routinely endure unlawful sexual harassment from customers and police; they also confront discrimination from landlords, school officials, banks, and medical personnel. They bear most of the unfairness quietly because sex work is deemed to be illegal. Learning objectives: To share information on the legal rights of sex workers To explore the challenges that they face in accessing these rights To propose ways of mitigating these challenges so as to ensure the full enjoyment of their human rights. It is expected that at the end of the training session, participants will be knowledgeable on the legal rights of sex workers and ways of accessing them. Materials Flipchart, markers, some case studies, copy of the universal declaration of human rights. Method: The session will take the form of training and 2 short group exercises
Exercise 1: In groups of 5, list down challenges that sex workers face in your context. Report back to plenary and list the emerging challenges from the small group’s session. For example: flimsy arrests, abuse by police who demand sex, money stolen when arrested, lack of legal representation, etc The purpose of this exercise is to help participants identify abuses in real life stories. Step 1 : Core principles of human rights What are human rights? Human rights are basic rights and freedoms that all people are entitled to regardless of nationality, sex, ethnic origin, race, religion, language, or other status.
They have elements of things you are entitled to – to make positive demands for conditions that allow you to act, think or just be, but also about not being unfairly stopped from doing things that are fair to do.
62 Pow Wow: Training of Sex Workers
Rights involve the relationship between two or more humans; everyone is a rights-holder and a duty-bearer; thus the rights and responsibilities of one person are directly related to the rights and responsibilities of the other. Exercising the rights of one person should not violate the rights of other. Rights belong both to people in societies that value individualism and those based on collective identities. Human rights belong to every human everywhere; they are inalienable. Human rights are minimum conditions for a “dignified life”.
Plenary discussion: The following are specific human rights that are usually violated in the case of sex workers. Describe each. What does it look like in real life?
The right to life, liberty, and security of person The rights to equal protection under the Law including the right to a fair trial Freedom from arbitrary arrest The right to the highest attainable standards of mental and physical health The right to be free from arbitrary interference with one’s private life and family life Freedom from torture, and other cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment The right to non-discrimination The right to favourable conditions of work Freedom of movement and freedom of residence Equal access to public services including the right to health care The right to peaceful assembly and association The right to participate in the cultural and public life of society The right to work The right to privacy The right to family The right to be free from slavery, forced labour and servitude The right to be protected against violence, physical injury, threats and intimidation The right to be free from attacks on honour and reputation The right to leave any country, including one’s own, and to return to one’s own country The right to seek asylum and not to be returned to a dangerous or otherwise unacceptable situation The right to freedom of opinion and expression The right to organise and, in particular, the right to form and to join a union The right to effective remedies against injustice The right to participate in the cultural and public life of the society
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) is thefoundational document of international human rights law. It was adopted in 1948 after the second world war as a “common standard of achievement for all peoples and all nations”.
Step 2 Exercise 2: Provide participants with simplified versions of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR). Divide the rights according to the number of groups. Ask each group to match each of the experience of violations identified earlier to the relevant right that was violated in the UDHR. • •
Apply human rights claims under international human rights law to problems Begin to identify strategies of response
Process: 1. Participants divide into groups of 5 people 2. Link the abuses that were identified with Exercise 1 with a specific rights claim (“police stopping women in sex work without evidence of a crime is discriminatory, they don’t stop ‘nice women’; police touching sex workers all over their bodies violates privacy and degrading treatment…..taking away condoms violates rights to health) Final Plenary session: Describe 3 concrete policy changes that would end this abuse? Think about what kinds of claims should be developed in your country and list them.
Tools/Resources
Universal Declaration on Human Rights (1948). Declaration on the Rights of Sex Workers (2005), International Committee on the Rights of Sex Workers in Europe (ICRSE). Available at: http://www.sexworkeurope.org Sex Workers in Europe Manifesto (2005), International Committee on the Rights of Sex Workers in Europe (ICRSE). Available at: http://www.sexworkeurope.org Sisonke Sex Worker Movement Mission Statement, South Africa (2004). Available at: http://www.sweat.org.za/
64 Pow Wow: Training of Sex Workers 3.6 TOPIC: MOVEMENT BUILDING I am of the opinion that my life belongs to the whole community and as long as I live, it is my privilege to do for it whatever I can. I want to be thoroughly used up when I die, for the harder I work the more I live. ~George Bernard Shaw Warm up A memory game with some action 1. Ask the participants to stand in a circle. Start by saying, ‘I am going on a trip and I am taking a hug. Hug the person to your right. 2. S/he then has to say, ‘ I am going on a trip and I am taking a hug and a pat on the back’, S/he then has to give the next person a hug and a pat on the back. 3. Go round the circle until everyone has had a go, with each person repeating what was said and done before and adding one new action to the list. If someone forgets the sequences encourage the others to help him or her to do the right thing. Session 1 : Movement building: Key issues There is growing recognition of the need to build a broad transformative sex worker movement led and composed of sex-workers which will act as a powerful pressure group that cannot be silenced. Many sex workers have organised themselves in East and Southern Africa and other countries in Africa in order to struggle against oppression, abuse, and other structures of power and domination which oppress and exploit them. They have established different kinds of groups, organisations and networks right from the grassroots level to regional alliances to provide them with support and solidarity for both individual and collective struggles. These have been vital and instrumental in empowering them economically, politically and socially, and have enabled many to achieve a greater voice within their families, communities, and workplace. However, many of these groups are fragmented and isolated from each other, with limited power at the national, regional and global level and hence the importance of a movement. Attempts have been made to build movements but many well meaning organisations and passionate activists go through movement building processes without an adequate understanding of and/or the translation of the key principles to tangible practical steps and actions. Often, there is limited appreciation of the distinction between movement building from other forms of social organising. This is particularly true with the formless and long term nature of movement building; having a unifying agenda yet with differing strategies and mobilising masses while expressing multiple voices. An important ingredient for success and sustainable outcomes therefore depends on how organisations and individuals could position themselves to become better catalysts in movement building initiatives. Through this session participants will explore the concept of movement building with practical skills that demonstrate the rationale for sex workers movement building for justice and social transformation.
Objectives By the end of the session, participants should: Know what movement building is as opposed to other forms of organising Explain and apply principles of organising and movement building Identify key issues and the rationale for sex worker movement building in Africa Be aware of the need to create dynamic organisations as catalysts for sex worker movement building Advocacy, networking and coalition building for sex workers rights and social change Tools and Methods Pen and papers Flip charts and felt tip pens Case Study - the movie - Making the Tales of the Night Fairies with translation as relevant) Step 1: What is Movement Building? Time Aim: Material:
2 hours To enable participants to engage with the concept of movement building with practical examples and experiences Flip charts and felt tip pens, 2 flip boards
Process: i. Make sure that the participants understand the meaning of movement building ii. In buzz groups, the facilitator asks participants to share examples of movement building initiatives they know of and write these on the flip chart iii. The facilitator invites one participant for each buzz group to share in the larger plenary iv. As each group presents, the facilitator jots down on separate flip charts what a movement is and what it is not e.g. column on movements to include : movements such as independence movements; workers ; farmers/land ; sex workers; HIV and AIDS; LGBTI, women’s rights/feminists ; pan-africanism; anti globalisation; social justice. Column on not movements to include: forum, coalitions, networks, organisations, campaigns, groups, etc. Tips for facilitation Explain what makes a movement by using examples from most known movements to the participants in this case it could be liberation movements, religious, women’s rights; HIV and AIDS; LGBTI, etc. Key issues would include that: movements are formless with no structure; they are defined by the agenda that provides the rationale for their mobilising and define why they come together; they mobilise masses; they express multiple voices. Step 2: Explain and apply principles of movement building Time Aim:
1 hour To enable the participants to begin to see more practically the differences between movement building and other forms of organising while at the same time appreciating the potential for sex worker movement building within especially Eastern and Southern Africa.
66 Pow Wow: Training of Sex Workers Material:
Flip charts and felt tip pens, 2 flip boards; the movie here, or a case study from any popular movement building.
Process: (The facilitator can change the process depending on the method to be used. The process below is for using the short movie video but can be adopted for any other case study. If there are people who do not speak English, translate the key aspect of the movie in a language that the majority understand) i. ii.
Prepare room and equipment for the short movie/video Facilitator to inform the participants of the short movie on Making the Tales of the Night Fairies and ask them to jot down issues they consider to be as success factors in the story iii. After the movie facilitator to invite participants to share their observ ations encouraging each one to share iv. Facilitator to highlight all observations and undertake a discussion on issues raised by the participants v. Facilitator to inquire whether there are similar experiences among participants or from other movement building initiatives Tips for facilitation. This session will allow the facilitation to introduce key principles in movement building that include: Having a common vision, core principles with mechanisms for negotiation and accountability Community and political organising skills and promoting an alternative model of leadership judged by the numbers of people empowered to speak out and sustain pressure for accountability Organising and nurturing of collective power of people united across many differences by a common cause Multi-class, racial, cross generational alliances pulling the voices and leadership of those affected at the centre Clarity of what change is needed to address the immediate and underlying factors of situations - identification of issues and trends Need for various strategies for consensus building and use of popular language that resonates with the realities of the majority of those affected by the situation Political consciousness - key issues including clarity on why we entered into a movement? What is our vision, what do we expect to realise in the short, medium and long term? Part of ensuring collective action is a systematic and consistent awareness raising and mobilisation for the movement Power analysis needs to understand power within, power over, power with; need to know how power is manifested and the various structures and systems that reinforce inequalities Leadership based on trust, and discipline means transforming ourselves learning and unlearning, challenging the status quo, transforming our institutions/organisations - a shift from patriarchal structures towards more participatory non hierarchical forms Transforming systems, structures and culture – values, beliefs Resource mobilisation; people, money other material/technical resources tracking/value for money
Facilitator: The above are some of the ingredients that define a movement. Ensure that step 2 has been understood and the participants can describe movements without confusing them with organisations.
Step 3: Key issues for sex workers movement building in Eastern and Southern Africa Time: Aim: Material:
4 hours To enable participants to explore key issues and the rationale for sex worker movement building in Eastern and Southern Africa Flip charts and felt tip pens, 2 flip boards; books, magazine with case studies or stories on sex workers’ harassments; case studies on organising by sex workers; examples from sex workers’ organisations or organisations that support sex workers such as FAHAMU and AMWA
Process: i. This should be an interactive discussion building on past sessions. ii. By this session the participants would have gone through a lot of experience sharing their various struggles both at personal and the level of organisations/groups initiatives. iii. From Step 2, participants would have also learned through the video or case study; and follow up discussions on the key principles for movement building; the power in movements and specifically in the sex worker movement in India and the similarities with their own movement. iv. At this point the role of the facilitator is to link the participants’ dream for social justice and the potential for realising those dreams though collective actions including building bridges between LGBTI and women sex workers. v. Participants will work in groups each with flip charts and felt tip pens. vi. Ask the participants to write down sex workers’ issues of concern and the institutions/structures responsible for addressing those demands (use separate flip charts for issues and responsible actors) Note: in writing down issues of concern, include issues of transgender sex workers too.
Tips for facilitation The facilitator need to be aware and knowledgeable of sex workers’ issues and share various examples. (read needs assessment of sex workers done by Fahamu). These include but are not limited to:
Demand and fight for legal and policy regulations while raising fundamental questions on the fact that the violence that sex workers encounter is partly due to the denial of legal rights and partly due to the stigma that the community carries. Recognition of sex work as work that sex workers are entitled to the same legal rights as any other person who is involved in other ‘socially acceptable’ forms of labour. Demand that the wider public engages with the process of unlearning and relearning, as the majority is still informed by prejudices and stereotypes. Human rights organisations
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movement to include confronting sexuality as central to beginning the process of unlearning and relearning. The right to organise and creation of platforms for themselves at the same time the right of coalition building and engagement with other movements other than sex workers rights groups, both nationally, regionally and internationally. Challenging public attitudes and assumptions that all women and men in sex work are victims who need rehabilitation and protection from pimps, brothel owners and traffickers. Need for data on sex workers to show their contributions to the country, their families and themselves. Protection mechanisms to ensure that minor girls and unwilling adults are not brought into the trade. Rejecting organisations and institutions who think that any body engaged in sex work needs to be rescued, completely ignoring the sex workers’ rights. Demand for recognition of trans-genders who continue to subvert and resist imposed modes of identity, morality and behaviour patterns. Public awareness and understanding of ‘trafficking’ that implies forced and coerced prostitution against consensual sex work.
Facilitator: Before closing this step, ensure that the participants have exhausted most of the challenges they face. Emphasise that successful movements are organised around an issue which already arouses outrage among those affected, a sense that this situation or problem cannot be tolerated for another day. Change is absolutely necessary and will be struggled for, regardless of the risks involved. One way of finding out what those issues are is to identify the existing ‘hot spots’ or pockets of resistance where sex workers are already organising themselves and demanding change alone or with their communities. For example criminalisation of sex workers is an outrage factor. Another outrage factor is violence against sex workers. Governments do not provide protection against sex workers as sex work is regarded as illegal. Do not forget the needs of different groups of sex workers e.g. rural/urban, beginners and well established, transgender and males, etc.
3.7 TOPIC: DYNAMIC ORGANISATIONS: A CATALYST FOR SEX WORKER MOVEMENT BUILDING Time: Aim:
2 hours To enable participants to position their own organisations and groups as key catalysts for sex worker movement building. (Note that this is an important session as it touches on issues of organisational development. Some of the participants might not be familiar with what an organisation needs in order to survive and have to learn through the session.)
Materials:
Flip charts and felt tip pens, 2 flip boards; case studies on successful organisations that had catalysed organising and movement building (could be
from sex workers or HIV and AIDS, women/feminist movements; workers, etc.); notes on key principles for movement building (see facilitator’s notes Step 2 above), baking powder/yeast and flour Process: i. The process to position participants’ organisations and groups need to be preceded by a discussion of what a dynamic organisation for sex workers looks like and the meaning of being a catalyst. ii. For this, a simple brainstorming exercise can be facilitated or buzz groups focusing on common examples such as the use of baking powder or yeast in baking or salt in cooking. In actual fact, an experiment should be done to show how yeast catalyses the process of bread making. iii. In the same brainstorming mode, the facilitator should remind participants on the key principles of movement building as articulated under Step 2 above. The rationale of this exercise is to enable participants to draw an analogy between a dynamic movement and the needed dynamism within organisation(s)/group(s) for the sustenance of movement. iv. Issues to emerge from this discussion to be noted down by the facilitator on a flip chart include: a. An organisational/group vision that emerges not from top-down developmental attempts but through the lived experiences of the sex workers and their needs. b. Trust, openness, transparency and belief in a participatory and animated philosophy that recognises the potential of sex workers themselves to catalyse their own struggles for their rights. c. A theory for change that interlinks sex workers’ discrimination within the broader context of macro development and economic discourses yet connecting with individual and collective reasons for each sex worker woman and man to forge a collective identity and precipitate the process of their own empowerment. d. An understanding of the heterogeneous and multiple threads of individual sex worker narratives and stories, yet the passion to forge ahead collectively for greater visibility and impact. e. Coalition building among sex workers and with other movements and organisations. f. Capacity to document, communicate and share experiences. v. After this discussion participants to sit in groups (here the facilitator can determine the formation of groups along specific issues of focus or geographical/generational or any other relevant category) vi. In each group participants will use the key points for discussion above as well as those done under step 3 to make an assessment of their own organisation or groups first vii. Key questions may include a. Does my group or organisation have a dynamic vision? Who owns the vision? b. Do we have a theory of change? How do we frame sex work and articulate our strategies for change? c. What issues are we working on and how do these link with the boarder development picture? d. What type of leadership is exercised in my group/organisation (team work, openness, trust, accountability)? e. Do we have any mechanisms for learning and networking among ourselves and with other movements, organisations and strategic actors?
70 Pow Wow: Training of Sex Workers f. What are our main resources (money, people, materials)? g. How do we build on such resources – capacity development, funding, etc.? h. How do we monitor and evaluation our work? i. What are our major achievements, challenges and lessons learnt? j. How do we communicate our work and to whom? viii. After each participant jots down key issues from individual organisation/group they should share in the smaller groups. ix. Each group should be asked to share at least three to four key emerging issues that the participants identify to be critical in the quest to transform their organisations and groups to become a more effective player in sex worker movement building. x. In plenary, the facilitator should jot down all the key emerging issues from all the groups noting areas of commonality. xi. These should become the basis for action planning at the end of the training. Note: Feedback need not be done on the flip chart. It can be done as a debate, open discussion, skit, etc. Encourage creativity. Tips for facilitation This session encourages participants to link their visions with practical aspects on how they could get there. Organisations and groups if transformed could become an important vehicle in support of such a process. Through the tips provided above, the facilitator should have enabled each participant to have a critical reflection of their own organisation or group and at the same time, develop commonalities among them. This is an important step that should be given ample time as most organisations struggle with organisational development issues. Home work: Think of a pear; it’s a sensitive fruit. Its peel is easily bruised, easily broken through. Its core is a delicate spine of filaments. The pear is no weakling though. Its strengths lie in its vulnerability. It knows who it is and isn’t afraid to acknowledge its own frailties or its own sweet power. Assume your organisation is a pear, what are its vulnerabilities and its sweet power? Note for facilitator: This home work can be given before ending Step 4 so that there is time for feedback. If the participants are not familiar with a pear, find another fruit which is as delicate. Closing Circle Ask everyone to sit down in a circle for closing this session. Ask each participant to mention one thing which they liked about this session and one which they found hard. Remind every one about their role as guardian angels. Arrange for the next session. Finish with a song...’Something inside so strong’
3.8 TOPIC: ADVOCACY, NETWORKING AND COALITION BUILDING FOR SEX WORKERS’ RIGHTS AND SOCIAL CHANGE Attention getter Exercise: O Maria! Description: Each participant has to say, ‘O Maria’ (or appropriate name around the circle, one after the other). Instruction: 1. Stand in a circle. Explain how the game will illustrate how different uses of our voices combined with or without bodies can also communicate a lot to others. 2. Take a common name such as Maria, using this name and saying, ‘O Maria’, say how you can say it with anger, fear, sexiness, laughter... As a facilitator you can give examples of these first. 3. Ask each participant in turn in the circle to say, ‘O Maria’ using the same name each time. Ask each one to try and say it in a different way showing a different feeling. 4. Encourage everyone again to repeat the phrase in turn. This time they should convey a different message through the phrase than the one they have previously conveyed. 5. When everyone has had ago, ask participants to analyse what they have learnt from this. Points they many raise may include loud or soft voices, confident or timid voices, emphasis, facial expression, eye contact, body language, etc. Advocacy, networking and coalition building for sex workers’ rights and social change Key issues: Debates on sexual inequality represent the most fundamental challenge to struggles for democracy. One of the biggest challenges of our times is how to confront the complexities of intersecting oppressions so that people identified as sexual minorities, for example sex workers, lesbians, gays, transgendered, intersexed and corrective rape survivors are able to stand with full status on the same podium such as those representing groups fighting against dictatorships, corruption, social injustice, insecurity, discrimination against women, or fighting for people with disabilities. There are of course sexual minorities within each of these groups and often implicit among groups are concerns about sexualities. Until we close the gap between different voices demanding justice and equality, embracing the infinite possibilities of our sexual, social, economic and political beings, the African renaissance or the transformation that we are striving for will forever remain a mirage. Some groups and organisations of sex workers have begun to contribute, albeit in a modest way to the closing of the gap. They are demanding and fighting for legal and policy regulations in favour of sex work and workers including the right to organise; recognition of sex work as well as challenging public attitudes and assumptions on sex work. However, progress towards the attainment of these goals is slow and the context of this advocacy is increasingly becoming complex. While the preceding sections have stressed the importance of organising among sex workers to challenge societal stereotypes and demand legal recognition; the information and capacity so far provided by the preceding sections do not automatically translate into
72 Pow Wow: Training of Sex Workers action. This session is an attempt to facilitate linkages from previous sections with action beyond individual sex workers or groups into the collective. In particular, the session aims at providing participants with relevant knowledge on the significance and strategies of advocating, networking and coalition building for sex workers’ rights at all levels. Objectives • To develop and enhance participants’ knowledge on how to address crucial and emerging sex workers’ issues that require the support and cooperation of many actors. • Appreciate the reasons for advocacy, organising, coalition building and networking • Explain strategies of forming effective coalitions and networks Material: Flip charts and felt pens, 2 flip boards; case studies on advocacy and coalition building initiatives (could be from sex workers or HIV and AIDS, women and human rights organisations; students; workers, etc.) Activity 1: Understanding advocacy, coalition building and networking Process i. Facilitator draws on participants’ knowledge and understanding of advocacy and coalition building through a buzz discussion. The facilitator asks participants to think of a situation in their lifetime when they were involved in an advocacy and coalition process, whether at home, school, community, workplace or somewhere else. ii. In pairs, participants should share what they did, the rationale behind their action and why they think it is/was an advocacy or coalition building activity. Each pair should choose one case for sharing in plenary. iii. In case there are not enough experiences among participants, the facilitator can use case studies and again the movie can be relevant here as well. The facilitator summaries the discussion highlighting the key issues in advocacy and coalition building as follows: Advocacy Advocacy refers to processes taken by organisations and individuals to exert pressure for changes in a specific policy or behaviour of a government, organisation, group of people, or the general public at community, district, regional, national, or even international levels. Advocacy involves action(s) directed at changing power, positions, policies and legal frameworks. It is a process of constant searching for rights that have been denied or are not recognised. In its broadest sense, advocacy brings together associated groups and individuals to influence design, execution and change in the policies and behaviour of institutions and communities that have power over them. Advocacy consists of actions designed to draw stakeholders’ attention to an issue and to direct policy-makers to a solution. It consists of political, organisational and legal activities to influence the shape and practice of laws, public policies, or institutional/community level issues. Although contested, some advocacy actions involve lobbying activities through face to face and use of other approaches with the aim of trying to change/influence the thinking, attitude, understanding and even the way of interpreting issues. It is a way of influencing people to agree or disagree with certain issues.
Coalition Building It is the process of bringing together the strengths of different actors for a common cause. Coalition building is a strategy through which various stakeholder come together with a view of developing common approaches in the process of exerting pressure and influencing design, execution and change in policies and behaviour of institutions and communities. Various organisations and individuals should be carefully selected to become key partners in promoting an advocacy goal. Key aspects in the development of coalitions include: common cause/shared vision on issues/like-mindedness; networking at different levels of stakeholders. Networking Networking is the means through which coalition members and other strategic actors work together in terms of information, experience, resources sharing, etc., in the process of lobbying and advocacy. Activity 2: The relevance and key element of coalition and partnership building Aim To enable participants to explain the relevance and key elements of partnership building and how they can work in reality through case studies. To demonstrate different ways of organising and networking for building consensus and support for policy at community, organisational as well as policy level. Process Facilitator to invite participants to share experiences on advocacy activities. The facilitator may also use VIPP cards, to give a short presentation on the key steps in advocacy and coalition for change on issues of sex workers rights. Key elements/steps in advocacy and coalition building for change are provided below: 1. Collective planning and preparatory activities that include identification of the issue(s)/concern(s) that can be influenced by public action Begin by answering questions that include: what are key issues/problems faced by sex workers? What would the situation be if these issues/problems were addressed? What are the specific, immediate goals of your advocacy efforts? Examples of possible issues related to sex workers as per Step 3 above. Participants to appreciate the need to draw up a list of groups, institutions, and individuals who may have a similar interest in the issue. Successful advocacy strategy requires the support of many partners at different levels. 2. Making a clear analysis of the issues and explore the solutions Investigate the nature and extent of the problem or concern. This involves: developing a clear conceptual understanding of the issues - use a theory to help in the analysis of underlying reasons of sex workers’ issues and problems; gathering statistics or other data on a particular issue, including information on relevant actors and institutions; understanding the approaches others have taken to respond to the issue and how your organisation can link with ongoing processes; building the capacity of key actors to be agents of change on that particular issue. This capacity-building process should include analysis; participatory methodology, advocacy skills training, as well as specific skills building related to the particular issue to be addressed.
74 Pow Wow: Training of Sex Workers 3. Setting objectives and formulating demands Based on your research of the issue, define a clear position and formulate the desired outcomes. For example, when advocating for a particular change in law, you should outline the rights that are desired, and offer alternate proposals to current legislation. It is important to determine at the outset, the focus of the advocacy strategy e.g. how inclusive are the demands for change. The more inclusive, the greater potential for building alliances with individuals or groups facing similar problems. 4. Revisiting the international, regional and national human rights declarations that can be used for the promotion and advocacy for sex workers rights Facilitator to highlight the need to be aware of and use existing national regional and international human rights instruments when asking governments to make commitments or to act upon the commitments already made. Familiarise yourself with these documents. International and regional treaties, conventions, and agreements that have potential for addressing issues of sex workers including: The Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW); Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC); Commitments from the international women’s conferences - Mexico (1975), Nairobi (1985), Beijing (1995), Beijing Plus Five (2000), SADC Gender Declaration, HIV/AIDS policies in the region. 5. Designing advocacy strategy Articulate the strategy, in terms of goals, targets, and actions to be taken, setting benchmarks and strategies for documentation. Participants to appreciate two main aspects in drawing an advocacy strategy. These include: 5.1 Identifying the main targets of the advocacy activity This process should include a clear analysis of stakeholders, identifying key actors, supporters, gatekeepers and opponents at different levels - community, local government, national government, etc. Develop separate strategies for each.
5.2 Develop strategies for coalition building Coalition building is a necessary component of an effective advocacy strategy. Carefully select the organisations and networks that will be key partners in promoting the advocacy goal. In the case of sex workers’ rights, recognise the need to develop collaboration with progressive and other broad based human and women rights/feminist groups and organisations. To ensure the efficient functioning of partnerships and coalitions, agree on a mechanism for coordination of coalition activities, this may include shared roles or one organisation to serve as the secretariat on rotational basis. The coalition should then plan strategies for linking up with a wider group of like-minded organisations and individuals. 5.3 Implement advocacy activities Educate the public and gain support For advocacy to be successful, it is important to develop a broad base of support through educating constituents, allies, and the public about the issue being advocated.
Particular emphasis should be placed on community-based organisations who can mobilise the public to pressure decision-makers. In order to obtain this support, advocacy messages need to be developed, communicated through a variety of media, and adapted to suit a particular audience or situation. Influence policy and decision-makers Key policy and decision-makers should be influenced through lobbying. People who make or influence policies and decisions are a diverse group. They include technicians (e.g. planners), politicians (e.g. Members of Parliament), and managers (e.g. chief executives of large companies). Within decision-making institutions, different groups or individuals assume different roles. For example, a Member of Parliament may introduce a bill to the legislature that is then sent to a Review Committee made up of other Members of Parliament. It is important to understand who is responsible for what and to develop a strategy for each of the actors. Potential allies should be identified, such as women decision-makers.
Activities to influence policy-makers may include: Organising working sessions or lobbying meetings with key actors Producing position papers Holding public rallies and events Petitions or letter campaigns Using national, regional and international conventions as tools for advocacy
5.4 Feedback, reflect, monitor and evaluate Throughout the advocacy process, groups and individuals involved in the process should meet regularly for feedback, reflection and monitoring of the strategy. The purpose of monitoring is to enable the organisers of the advocacy initiative to decide whether they need to modify the strategy or to strengthen particular aspects of it. Some of the questions to be addressed are: Are we making progress towards our goals? Are the plans working well or do they need adjustment? Is the information reaching its target? Are the targeted decision-makers becoming sympathetic to our demands? Documentation should be collected on achievements and challenges, for compilation and sharing. At the end of a particular advocacy campaign, opportunities should be created for collective reflection and celebration of gains. 6. Advocacy In Action – Experience Sharing and Good Practices Process: The facilitator to prepare one or two case studies/good practice examples on strategies for advocacy and coalition building to be presented in plenary. These could include specific good practices on sex workers activism; others could include land advocacy, and Violence Against Women. The facilitator can also solicit examples from the participants.
76 Pow Wow: Training of Sex Workers During the presentations, facilitator to ask participants to note down the key steps in advocacy and coalition building. A plenary discussion is then facilitated focusing on the key issues for each step, achievements/challenges and constraints and lessons learnt. The lessons from this discussion can be used in developing/strengthening participants’ advocacy and coalition building strategies. End the session by noting that movement building largely depends on self-organising by exploited sex workers organising themselves on their own account in order to achieve the objectives they have identified. The movement is not necessarily led by an NGO or other organisation per se, but rather bubbles underground and above ground, pushed forward, up, down and sideways by the actions and ideas of countless numbers of marginalised sex workers be they male, female or transgender who claim the movement demands as their own. Organisers may have an important role to play in helping to articulate the demands of sex-workers in the movement, and providing information on appropriate strategies of communication, lobbying and advocacy. Working in groups of 5 identify an issue which arouses the most outrage among sex workers. Design an advocacy campaign around it. Facilitator: Remind the participants to use all the skills they have learnt so far. They should be given two weeks to do the home work but should be ‘provoked’ every now and again lest they forget all about it.
3.9 TOPIC: TRANSFORMATIONAL LEADERSHIP “Courage is what it takes to stand up and speak. Courage is also what it takes to sit down and listen.” – Winston Churchill Energiser: “If you hear a voice within you saying ‘you are not a painter’ then by all means paint and that voice will be silenced.” – Vincent Van Gogh. Facilitator: Give the participants ten minutes to discuss how they have silenced different voices and gone ahead and done things they were afraid of doing. Introduction The importance of transformative leadership for sustainable results and long term impact of any development initiative is increasingly being acknowledged in the context of many complexities of today’s world associated with ongoing social, economical, political, cultural, ecological changes. At the heart of this debate there seems to be consensus on the key components of transformative leadership; that include: the ability to challenge the status quo; while encouraging creativity among followers to explore new ways of doing things and new opportunities to learn; openness, transparency and communication that enable followers to share ideas/unique contributions without fear; having a compelling and well articulated vision which can motivate others to experience the same passion and encourage them to support the goals. Others include: walking the talk so as to serve as role models in order to build trust and respect and above all internalisation of the ideals. The African women rights/feminist movement and specifically transformative feminists; have made an important contribution to this debate. These include: the need to interrogate leadership through asking key questions that include: leadership of what? of whom? and for what? According to this view, given the context in which we are, transformative leadership ought to centre on the question of positionality and identity, as well as the questions of transparency and accountability. What is the position of the leader, in terms of gender, class, rural-urban location, ethnicity/race, and nation/region? With whom does the leader (or the collective leadership) identify and is accountable to in practice, not in rhetoric? (Marjorie Mbilinyi, 2007) There is no doubt that sex worker leaders have more potential to identify and be accountable to fellow sex workers given the needed level of courage and commitment to stand up and voice the rights of sex workers regardless of the consequences of challenging the might of their structures in society. However, in line with transformative leadership, important questions include: the extent to which such leadership is able to link sex workers’ rights and issues within the larger context; whether such leadership is people-centred as opposed to leader centred groups. Above all, the major question is to what extent is the sex workers’ movement positioning itself to construct the kind of leadership that is able to spearhead and sustain the struggle in a way that is inclusive and empowering for all sex workers regardless of their diversity.
78 Pow Wow: Training of Sex Workers This section is dedicated to providing practical skills and knowledge about key ingredients of transformative leadership, its potential and how to institutionalise such principles within individual sex workers groups, organisations and the movement as a whole. Objectives By the end of the session, participants should: i. Know what transformative leadership is as opposed to other forms of leadership ii. Explain and apply principles of transformative leadership iii. Explain the value of feminist principles and leadership iv. Identify key issues towards strengthening or adopting transformative leadership in sex workers groups, organisations and the movement building in Eastern and Southern Africa Tools • Pens and papers • Flip charts and felt tip pens • Case studies Step 1: What is transformative leadership? Time: Aim: Material:
1 hour To enable participants to engage with the concept of transformative leadership with practical examples and experiences Flip charts and felt tip pens, 2 flip boards
Process: Facilitator begins the session by asking participants to do a role play that will demonstrate different types of leadership styles and their outcomes. For example, each group to role play scenarios (family, workplace, and community) that depict different types of leadership styles including top down versus participatory leadership styles, autocratic versus democratic; people centred leadership versus leader centred groups. Building on the role play, the facilitator to provide a summary of key emerging issues on leadership styles. After the role play and summary facilitator asks participants to discuss (in buzz groups) with concrete examples and the outcomes of different leadership styles in real life situations from the context e.g. public and private institutions such as family, the government, political parties, civil society, faith, private sector. As each group presents, facilitator to jot down on a separate flip chart common leadership styles and outcomes. The facilitator to engage a discussion on the extent to which tenets of above leaderships styles are visible in various civil society institutions including sex worker groups, organisations and movements and the implication of these in the realisation of long term goals for sex workers’ rights and the overall social justice movement . Tips for facilitation Emphasise to the group that each group, organisation or institution has a leadership style which informs the kind of relationships and interaction between and within organisations and the outside world. While the ideal is to have more participatory, open and democratic leadership, often this is not the practice in many institutions.
The facilitator to highlight examples of positive outcomes where more participatory leadership styles had been applied as per the examples from the group discussions.
Step 2 Articulation of the key principles of transformative leadership and how we can apply them Time: Aim: Material:
2 hours To make sure that all participants are aware of and able to explain the key principles in transformative leadership Paper, pens, flip charts and felt tip pens, 2 flip boards;
Process: Facilitator to ask each participant to write on paper the core values or principles that guide their work , group or organisations and how these values are translated into action After this participants to be asked to share their groups/organisations core values and principles in buzz groups From the buzz groups participants to agree on common values that will be shared in larger plenary. These to be written on flip charts. Each group to display their common values on the wall. In a moving ‘gallery’ plenary, each group to share with other participants who stand in front of the flip chart as they would a picture in an art gallery.
Tips for facilitation This is an opportunity to emphasise the key principles and benefits of transformative leadership as articulated under the introduction above. Facilitator to emphasise the potential for sex worker groups and organisations to create and nurture transformative leaders focusing on the distinction between leader-centred groups and group-centred leaders, the former is typical of majority in modern institutions, groups and organisations where leadership is characterised by the leadership of charismatic individuals with whom the group, organisation or movement is identified. In a literal sense, these groups will be known as so-and-so’s organisation, completely identified with a person, and not the collective contained within. A hierarchy of power is created, based on top down decision-making, such that the majority of staff and/or members are excluded from participation in significant decisions about policy and resource allocations. Should that leader be removed, silenced or have left of her/his own accord, such organisations often fall apart. Group centred leaders, in contrast, are grounded within their organisations or institutions, or movements; and the groups/organisations/movements they lead are identified not by a particular individual, but rather by the collective and its vision and mission. Decisions are made in a collective and participatory way, through animation (participatory dialogue and debate) – which is time consuming but ensures that everyone concerned understands what the decision is about, what the implications are, and will be prepared later to abide by the decision of the majority, if not the consensus of all. Group centred leadership also connotes a learning organisation/institution which continually strengthens and enriches its understanding of the current reality of struggle and development because the dynamics allow for continual reflection and criticism, selfcriticism and counter-criticism.
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People-centred leaders are nourished within group-centred leadership structures; mentored, supported and corrected when they begin to lose their way – be it in terms of positionality, identity, transparency or accountability. Corrective mechanisms are in place to immediately censure inappropriate behaviour and actions. Everyone has an interest in ensuring that openness, transparency and accountability prevail – because the organisation or movement is ‘owned’ by its members and/or collective. They identify with the organisation – the organisation identifies with them – and not with one individual.
Step 3 Transformative leadership from a feminist perspective. As mentioned above, the women’s rights movement and African feminists have made an important contribution in the transformative leadership discussions. Key among these is the distinctions between group based leadership and leader based groups. Other important feminist contributions include This session is devoted to enable participants to reflect on the value for feminist leadership principles and identify the potential for strengthening/adopting these values in sex workers groups, originations and movements as a whole Time: Aim: Material:
2 Hours To expose/strengthen participants understanding on feminist leadership principles Flip Charts and Felt Pens, Charter of Feminist Principles for African Feminists
Process: Summaries the charter for the participants and ask to identify what they find easy or difficult in the charter. Then have a discussion. Summarise key issues
3.10 TOPIC: TAKING ACTION BY PRESENTING TO THE KEY STAKEHOLDERS Introduction: It’s one thing to demand for rights but quite another to get them. Supply and demand should balance. Therefore it is suggested that the participants organise a day to meet key stakeholders and have a face to face engagement, a conversation really. . Key issues: The participants ‘role play’ their special request to the various key stakeholders and analyse the effectiveness of their lobbying strategies. Objectives: Practice lobbying for real Engage with key stakeholders and make some demands What is needed: Soft drinks and snacks, conducive meeting place Process: Ask the participants to divide into two groups of equal size. The two groups should sit in a semi-circle facing each other. One group will be composed of sex workers another of key stakeholders such as the police, bar owners, local authorities etc. The group representing sex workers will present its case (complaints) to the stakeholders. In their presentation, they will consider the legal and policy environments in which sex workers operate and the dangers of stigma, discrimination and violence targeting sex workers. Facilitator is to remind the participants about what they have learnt about presenting their issues (lobbying). One group presents a vivid image of violence, e.g. how it manifests in different forms, what it does to the lives of sex workers, their families, communities and the country. The idea is for the participants to think of all the arguments possible on both sides. They should therefore be as realistic as possible.
The other group represents the key stakeholders. They are supposed to present their arguments and in so doing be as equally realistic as possible. For example bar owners could argue that sex workers themselves are violent, the police could say that sex work is illegal...they could quote some of the utterances of the Uganda ‘State minister for Ethics and Integrity Fr. Simon Lokodo who said ‘…I agrees that like all Ugandans, sex workers have a right to HIV treatment and attention….However, giving them the leeway to operate as a business is too much to ask from the Government,…. Legalizing prostitution is a sign of moral decadence,” he stressed. (37% Ugandan sex workers are HIV positive: Publish Date Herald: Mar 24, 2012) Using a case such as the one quoted above, remind the stakeholders that sex work is not about morals, it’s about rights and it’s about economic survival. If you think that they are not ready for the language of rights, use the one of economic survival. Be tactiful and smart. Let the two sides discuss (as politely as possible) against each other for 10 minutes or so. Then bring them back into the circle. Next ask them to review the process of their presentation. Were the arguments presented well? We all the arguments balanced or were they exaggerated? Were they
82 Pow Wow: Training of Sex Workers too aggressive or too submissive? How was the body language? Arrogant? Was there eye contact? Were they convincing? Facilitator: If the exercise is not convincing, invite them to engage again, give them tips and let them go through the whole process again. Going forward Agree on the issues and whom you want to invite. Process of inviting them: who will invite them Convenient date and place How to present your case and who should present Facilitator: After agreeing, you might want the participants to rehearse again They could even invite friends from CSO to listen in, comment and advise. The presentation has to be perfect Prepare for the stakeholders by ensuring that the space is big enough and the ambience great. Prepare a programme and some entertainment (well rehearsed). Programme should not take more than 3 hrs...but make it really interesting so that they are left breathless but with speech as you need the speech Proposed programme Welcome and objective Introductions Making the case Response to the presentation: representative of each stakeholder group should be allowed to present. (participant are advises to listen with humility, to listen deeply to the stakeholders and to the power dynamics) Time to ask questions…sharp focused ones Short Entertainment and refreshments Offer gifts: Suggestion- copies of ‘When I dare to be powerful… Thank them profusely and bid good bye (with dignity) Reflection: Take the time to reflect on the meeting. What worked well and what did not. In which areas is improvement needed? Any follow up? etc Note: this exercise can be done differently depending on the circumstance in each country. For example it could be organised as a huge debate between sex workers and MPs.
3.11 TOPIC: REFLECTING ON THE PASSPORTS AND EXPECTIONS Motivator: Watch MILK, a story of constant risk of harassment, humiliation and violence but also of triumph; Running time 2hrs and 8 minutes. Introduction: This session brings the entire facilitators/resources person in each country together with the participants to reflect on the process. It should be a happy and joyful occasion. Materials: Flip charts, markers, ‘participants passports’ and a flip chart on which the expectations were written at the beginning of Pow Wow. Objectives To bring the process to a logical closure Remind the participants what they committed to do and review the extent to which they fulfilled their dreams Re-visit the expectations Process: 1. Explain that it’s important to for all the key stakeholder share their experience regarding the Pow Wow 2. Start the process by giving each person a chance to reflect on what they see as the “the real life” in front of them – the beautiful, simple, available life in front of each one of them that they can so easily overlook. Give them five minutes to think about this question: ‘What happens if you turn your attention away from how you wish things were different, and instead, fall in love with (or at least get really interested in) what is happening in your life right now?” Can you find some adventure in it? Give each two minutes to share their thoughts. 3. Then go back to the passport that was made by the participants at the beginning of Pow Wow and ask each to be honest and open and respond to the following question Things I hoped to do at the beginning of Pow Wow or what I hoped to be Write down what was achieved. Ask the participants to write what was not done or what they did not become. (eg. start a business, have more responsibility, write, fundraise etc) Ask them to state what they need in order to do what was not done. _ expertise _ experience _ practice _ mentors _ money _ time
84 Pow Wow: Training of Sex Workers _ maturity _ experimentation As each participants finishes presenting, other participants are asked to join and give suggestions /tips regarding how one can get the things they need in order to succeed. Facilitator: Call for a break 4. Sit in a circle. Remind the participants that at the beginning of the workshop, they had hopes and fears. Go around the circle and ask each to be honest and respond to the following: What were the hopes and fears each of them had Were the hopes fulfilled Did the fears come true? Ask them to make an overall comment on what they thought about Pow Wow. Discuss any negative points which are raised by the participants so that you know clearly why they felt disappointed or let down. Make note so that future training can be modified. All facilitators should try and accept criticism without complaining or defending themselves END: End the session with snacks, thanks all who persisted and close
3.12 TOPIC: PLANS FOR THE FUTURE Objectives To make future plans for the implementation of what was learnt Process: Ask the participants how they hope to share what they have learnt and how they hope to use the knowledge they have acquired Brainstorm and agree but dont force anything. Once they agree on things to do, ask what support they will need in order to do things they have indicated. By the end of the session, thing to do should be clear
3.13 TOPIC: CLOSING EXERCISE Exercise: Sharing mental gifts Process Ask the participants to sit in a circle. Start off by pretending to hand over a present to the person on your left. Say her/his name and then what you would like to give them as a present, something you know they would really love. For example if your neighbour is called Sarah and you know they would like to go to school, you could say, ‘ Sarah, I would like to give you an opportunity to go back to school’. Pretend to pass her this with your hands. This goes on around the circle. Thank them all. End with a party to which other Civil society actors are invited.
86 Pow Wow: Training of Sex Workers HANDOUT: Sexual Diversity: Terms and Definitions Gender identity— refers to a person’s internal, deeply felt sense of being either male or female, or something else in between. Because gender identity is internal and personally defined, it is not visible to others (Currah and Minter, 2000). Gender expression — refers to all of the external characteristics and behaviors that are socially defined as either masculine or feminine, such as dress, mannerisms, speech patterns, and social interactions (Currah and Minter, 2000). MSM—which stands for males who have sex with males, describes a behavior rather than a specific group of people. It includes self-identified gay, bisexual, or heterosexual men, many of whom may not consider themselves gay or bisexual (UNAIDS). Transgenders—refers collectively to individuals who challenge strict gender norms by behaving as effeminate men or masculine women, adapting “third gender” roles, or embarking on hormonal and surgical treatment to adjust their bodies to the form of the desired sex (IUSTI Asia Pacific Branch, 2009). Transsexual—a person who has a conflict between physical sex and gender identity as a man or a woman (Currah and Minter, 2000). Transvestite—heterosexual man who cross-dresses for sexual gratification but does not wish to be a woman (IUSTI Asia Pacific Branch, 2009). Intersexual person—a person who has a sexual anatomy that mixes male and female characteristics (Currah and Minter, 2000).
ANNEX HANDOUT: What are sexually transmitted diseases? How are they spread and treated? Sexually transmitted diseases (STD) are infectious diseases that can be spread from person to person through close sexual contact. Some can also be spread in other ways. Some affect only the genitals and others affect other parts of the body also. Some STD can be very serious (even life threatening), while others might be only uncomfortable and annoying. No matter what the disease is, it is a threat to sexual health, and it is the responsibility of health care workers to treat STD and promote their prevention. Some STD are described below. STD are a threat to sexual health Vaginal infections There are some vaginal infections that can be spread by sexual contact, but which can also have other causes. They are very common. One of the most important factors in the development of these infections is the pH (or level of acidity) of the vagina. When the pH is more alkaline, certain organisms can grow
more rapidly and can cause problems. Some causes of vaginal alkalinity are hormone levels (birth control pills or pregnancy), douching, oral antibiotics, pantyhose, nylon underpants, menstruation, stress, lack of sleep or presence of semen in the vagina. Candidiasis Most women' s vaginas carry the fungus, candida albicans, that causes this condition all the time. When the chemical balance of the vagina changes (with douching, taking some antibiotics, or just before the menstrual period) the candida might grow faster and cause symptoms. There can be a white, cheeseIike discharge, and itching, burning and red irritation of the vagina and vulva. Men can have itching and irritation of the penis and the yeast can live under the foreskin of an uncircumcised male. This fungus also lives usually in the mouth and in the intestine. Sexual partners can pass the organism to each other during intercourse or oral-genital sexual activities. Sexual activity is not necessary, however, to contract the initial colonization of yeast. Candidiasis is also known as moniliaisis or yeast infection. It can usually be easily treated with antifungal vaginal suppositories or creams (clotrimazole is the most common). Women who are immune compromised may need repeated or more aggressive treatment. Trichomoniasis The Trichomonasorganism is usually spread during sexual intercourse. It is a protozoan that can live for several hours in water or on a moist surface outside the body, so it is possible (but not common) for it to be spread in bath or swimming water or on toilet seats or wet towels. In the woman, symptoms are often uncomfortable. There is an abundant white or yellowish, frothy discharge. The discharge has a bad smell. The vagina and vulva are usually irritated, inflamed, itchy and sore. The male harbors the organism under the foreskin, or in the urethra. He may have a small amount of white discharge, itching or burning, but men are usually symptom free. It is important for all the sexual partners of the infected individual to be treated at the same time, since the organism can be continuously passed back and forth. Treatment is the oral administration of metronidazole. Bacterial vaginosis Gardnerellavaginalis, the organism that causes bacterial vaginosis, often lives harmlessly in the vagina. When the vagina becomes alkaline, it can overgrow and become an infection with uncomfortable symptoms. This organism can also live in the urethra or under the foreskin of the man. Women with bacterial vaginosis often have a thin discharge. The discharge is usually grey, but can be white, yellow or green. There is a bad, fishy smell with this discharge. There can also be irritation of the vagina and vulva. Men might also have some irritation of the urethra (causing burning on urination), foreskin or glans. Treatment for this infection is the oral administration of metronidazole. As with Trichomonas, all sexual partners should be treated at the same time. Bacterial vaginosis is not always transmitted sexually. The pH of the vagina determines whether or not the organisms grow enough to cause infections. Wearing cotton underwear, washing the genitalia daily or before intercourse, changing tampons or pads frequently, douching only under care providers, instruction, and limiting use of antibiotics can help prevent these infections.
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Gonorrhoea Gonorrhoea is a very common infection of the sexual organs. It is also known as "the clap". It is a big problem because it is easily spread sexually and can have severe complications if not properly treated.Neisseriagonorrhoeae(gonococcus) is the bacterium that causes gonorrhoea. It is spread from person to person through sexual activities. It infects the mucous membranes of the urethra, the cervix, the throat, the rectum or the conjunctiva (the covering of the eye). It can therefore be passed on through many activities. It is most commonly spread through vaginal or anal intercourse. When someone touches their infected genitals, then touches their eyes, it can spread to the conjunctiva. Babies can get gonorrhoea of the eyes during birth while passing through an infected cervical opening. Gonnorhoea can be passed to someone's throat during fellatio or cunnilingus. It is not easily passed through mouth kissing. There can be serious complications to gonococcal infections when they are not promptly treated. In the eye, scarring of the conjunctiva can cause blindness. In men, the infection can spread to the testicles (epididymitis) and cause pain and sterility. It can also spread through the uterus to the Fallopian tubes causing pelvic inflammatory disease (PID). This infection can be very serious, leading to high fevers and sometimes death. Later, women can have ectopic pregnancies and often become sterile. Sometimes the infection can spread through the abdominal cavity to cause perihepatitis Gonorrhoea is highly infectious and spreads easily In men, the signs and symptoms of gonorrhoea are fairly easy to recognize. Two to five days after becoming infected, the man will usually have burning of the urethra and difficulty urinating. There will be green or yellow discharge (called "a drip") from his penis. In anal gonorrhoea there is often itching, pain and anal discharge. Gonorrhoea is less obvious in women. It takes five to ten days for symptoms to appear in cervical infection. There may be some vaginal discharge or even burning on urination, but often there are no symptoms at all. There is often yellow or green drainage from the opening in the cervix, but the woman may not be aware of this. Sometimes the Bartholin's or Skene's glands Gust inside the vagina) are tender or pus can be milked from them. Sometimes the cervix or uterus are tender and there may be some abdominal discomfort. It is often difficult to diagnose gonorrhoea in women, and complications happen often. Since women may not have any indication that there is something wrong, they can easily spread the infection to their sexual partners without knowing it. Prompt treatment of gonorrhoea is very important. Penicillin used to be used effectively to treat it, but now there are many strains of gonococcus that have developed resistance to penicillin. These days ceftriaxone intramuscular injection (one dose), or spectinomycin intramuscular injection (one dose) are the treatments of choice for uncomplicated gonorrhoea. Doxycycline, tetracycline or erythromycin are also used to cover the possibility of concurrent Chlamydia infection. All recent (one week before appearance of symptoms) sexual partners should also be treated. Syphilis The numbers of cases of syphilis have been getting larger every year all over the world. It is especially worrisome that syphilis cases are increasing among adolescents. There seems to be a link between increasing numbers of AIDS virus infection and the increase in syphilis.
Syphilis is caused by Treponemapallidum, a delicate corkscrew-like bacterium (known as a spirochete). It can only live in warm moist places and can be passed from person to person through contact of mucous membranes (vagina, urethra, mouth) or open skin with open syphilis sores. Many kinds of sexual activities can spread syphilis infection. The sores (chancres) usually erupt in the genital region, but can sometimes appear in the mouth, the anus or the skin surrounding the genitalia. Transmission can occur during vaginal or anal intercourse, fellatio, cunnilingus, or any contact of the chancre with any mucous membrane or open skin. Unborn babies can also contract syphilis from an infected mother. The spirochete travels through the placenta from mother to child. Syphilis has four stages. The four stages are primary, secondary, latent and tertiary syphilis. If it is not properly treated, it can take many years to go from primary to tertiary disease. Primary syphilis shows up as a chancre (an open painless sore) which appears about two to six weeks after infection at the site where the spirochete entered the body. It develops from a small red bump to a red open sore. The sore usually has a raised border and may have a yellow or grey scab. It feels hard and rubbery .In men the chancre is usually on the glans, the shaft of the penis or on the scrotum. Most men seek medical care when the chancre appears. In women the chancre might appear on the labia, on the vaginal walls, or on the cervix. If there has been anal intercourse, oral- anal contact, or oral-genital contact, the chancre might appear in or around the anus or on the lips or tongue. Women are less likely to seek medical care because it is more difficult for them to see the chancre. Chancres of the anus can easily go undetected. There are usually enlarged lymph nodes on both sides of the groin. These are non-tender, smooth, firm and rubbery in texture. Primary syphilis is sometimes asymptomatic (probably because the chancre goes unnoticed). The chancres are full of spirochetes and can easily infect other people who contact them. After one to five weeks, the chancre heals completely even when there has been no treatment. Two weeks to six months later the disease progresses to secondary syphilis. Although asymptomatic, the patient remains infectious to others during all this time. In secondary syphilis a generalized skin rash appears. There are many red, hard bumps that don't usually itch or bum at all. The rash often appears on the palms of the hands and soles of the feet. Sometimes the rash is accompanied by a fever, fatigue, or swollen lymph nodes. As with the primary stage, the symptoms of secondary syphilis will resolve completely without treatment. The disease proceeds to the latent stage in a few weeks. Latent syphilis can last for many years. During this stage, the patient has no symptoms and does not know anything is wrong. The person is infectious to sexual partners for about the first year of the latent stage. A pregnant woman is always infectious to her fetus, however, and the patient's blood remains infectious because the spirochetes are still living and multiplying there. The fourth stage, tertiary syphilis, can show up between three and forty years later. Only a few people with untreated syphilis will develop the serious complications of this late stage of the disease. There are many manifestations of tertiary syphilis. People can have lesi ons of the liver, skin, bones or other organs. They can develop problems of the nervous system, the heart or the great blood vessels. In neurosyphilis there are often severe mental disturbances. Even when complications develop at this stage, though, treatment can help. Congenital syphilis occurs when pregnant women pass their syphilis infection on to their fetus. It can cause many problems in the fetus, and others that can show up in childhood. Among these are spontaneous abortion, stillbirth, skin problems, runny nose, encephalitis, liver problems, blood problems, multiple organ failure, bone inflammation, dental malformations,
90 Pow Wow: Training of Sex Workers blindness, deafness, and mental deficits. Testing and treating pregnant women for syphilis can easily prevent this. It is very important to locate and treat the sexual partners of syphilis patients (those with whom they had sexual contact during the first two years of their syphilis infection) to avoid further spread of the disease. Chlamydial infection Chlamydia trachomatis is a small bacterium that lives inside cells. It is an unusual bacterium and shares some of the characteristics of bacteria, and some of viruses. It requires cell culture to be detected in clinical infection. It causes several manifestations of sexually transmitted infections. It is the main organism causing non-gonococcal urethritis and postgonococcal urethritis. Reiter's syndrome sometimes follows chlamydial infection. Chlamydial infection is the most common cause of mucopurulent cervicitis that can lead to endometritis. It is a very common cause of proctitis. Newborn babies get conjunctivitis from passing through the birth canal of an infected mother. This may lead to blindness. Another serotype of Chlamydia causes one of the classic sexually transmitted diseases, lymphogranulomavenereum.
In men, the most common chlamydial infection is nongonococcal urethritis (NGU) or postgonococcal urethritis (PGU). When men have a urethritis that is not due to gonorrhoea, or which persists after gonorrhoea treatment, this is usually due to chlamydial infection. Other organisms that can cause NGU or PGU are herpes, Gardnerellavaginalis, Trichomonas, or Ureaplasmaurealyticum. Chlamydial urethritis usually produces a urethral discharge that is thinner, clearer, and less copious than that from gonorrhoea. There may be some burning on urination, but less than with gonorrhoea. Untreated chlamydial infections in men can progress to epididymitis and can cause sterility .Sometimes the aftermath of chlamydial urethritis is Reiter's syndrome, a combination of arthritis, rash on the soles of the feet, conjunctivitis and urethritis. Reiter's syndrome occurs in more males than females, and can be preceded by some intestinal infections as well as chlamydial urethritis. In women, chlamydial infection most commonly manifests as mucopurulent cervicitis. This can progress to endometriosis, and infection of the fallopian tubes. Scarring form this infection can lead to sterility and ectopic pregnancies. It is very common for women to have untreated chlamydial infections that lead to complications since they often have no noticeable symptoms. When symptoms do occur in women they are mild. Women might have slight burning on urination, increase in clear vaginal discharge, or abdominal pain. Pregnant women with chlamydial cervicitis can pass the infection on to their babies (in the form of conjunctivitis) as the baby passes through the infected birth canal. Symptoms of swelling and eye discharge can start in five to fourteen days after birth. If untreated or allowed to progress, it results in blindness. Both men and women can contract chlamydial proctitis from anal intercourse. The symptoms may include rectal pain, mucous in the stool, bleeding from the anus, and sometimes rectal stricture. The symptoms are fairly mild at first, so they might be easily ignored. Treatment for chlamydial infections is with doxycycline, tetracycline or erythromycin. Babies with chlamydial conjunctivitis are treated with erythromycin syrup.
Chancroid Chancroid is a sexually transmitted disease caused by a bacterium called Haemophilusducreyi. Many more men than women have been reported as having chancroid. As with- many other STD, chancroid is more difficult to detect in women, and thisleads to misleading statistics. H. ducreyiis exclusively sexually transmitted and rarely enters the body except through the skin or mucous membranes of the genitalia. It is usually passed on during sexual intercourse. Primary lesions located away from the genitals are very rare. The infection can be spread to other parts of the body through touching. Three to seven days after infection, a small red papule appears at the site where the organism entered. In a day or so, the papule erodes to become an ulcer. There may be more than one ulcer. They are almost always on the genitals. These ulcers are tender and soft. They often have some pus at the base. Sometimes the ulcers are very large, or several small ones can coalesce and look like one large ulcer. There is usually an area of redness around the ulcer, and the edges are flat or undermined. Sometimes an ulcer will be non-tender, especially in women who have ulcers on the vaginal walls or the cervix. Many patients with chancroid develop bubos (tender, swollen lymph nodes) which are usually in the inguinal area. These appear about one week after the ulcers. They are red and soft, and may rupture. Besides being painful the bubos can cause scarring and deformities. The presence of genital ulceration is a risk factor for contracting HIV infection. It is important to treat the ulcers as soon as they appear. Genital warts Warts of the genital area (condylomataacuminata) are caused by human papillomavirus. For a long time genital warts were thought to be inconvenient, but benign. But now it turns out that human papillomavirus (HPV) infection is strongly associated with dysplasia and squamous cell cancer of the cervix, penis, anus and vulva. The incidence of warts is very high in the developed countries. Sub-clinical papillomavirus infection is thought to be even higher. The epidemiology of HPV in developing countries has not been adequately investigated. Genital warts are transmitted through sexual activities. These include vaginal and anal intercourse, fellatio and cunnilingus. The warts can appear anywhere on the genitalia (cervix, vagina, vulva, penis, scrotum, perineum). They can often appear in and around the anus, and sometimes are seen in the mouth. Herpes There are two types of virus that cause herpes lesions. They are called herpes simplex virus (HSV) type 1 and type 2. Genital herpes is usually type 2, while the herpes that causes lesions of the lips and mouth is usually type 1. Type 1 can sometimes cause genital lesions, however, and type 2 can cause orolabial lesions. In most people herpes is uncomfortable and annoying, but not a major health concern. For people with immune suppression, however, such as people with AIDS, herpes can be a life -threatening infection. It is also a very serious disease for newborn babies. As with other STD that cause open lesions, having herpes makes it easier to become infected with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), the cause of AIDS. Hepatitis Hepatitis A is a viral disease that is transmitted through the faecal-oral route (the virus is in the faeces and is transmitted to another person when the faecal matter enters the other person's mouth). Some sexual activities facilitate this transfer of faeces to the mouth (anal intercourse,
92 Pow Wow: Training of Sex Workers touching of the anal area, anilingus). Fifteen to fifty days after infection the patient may have fever, malaise, nausea and vomiting and anorexia. In severe cases there may also be jaundice. Fulminant hepatitis rarely occurs. The sickness lasts about one to three weeks and is usually quite mild. Many people who contract hepatitis A infection never have any symptoms at all. There is no chronic disease and no carrier state for Hepatitis A. Treatment is largely symptomatic (bed rest, fluids, easily digested food). Sometimes people are given gamma globulin shots when they know they have been exposed to hepatitis A, or expect that exposure might take place in the near future. There is no easily available vaccine for hepatitis A at present, although work is progressing on usable, affordable vaccine. The most important thing to remember is that hepatitis is passed on through contact of the mouth with faeces, or through sexual activities. There is no cure for hepatitis B, and treatment for those who get sick is mainly supportive. There is a very effective hepatitis B vaccine, but its usefulness is limited by the fact that there must be three injections a month apart, and it is quite expensive. In some countries where there is a very high prevalence of hepatitis B infection, vaccination of all newborn babies is being considered. Another virus, hepatitis D virus, sometimes goes along with the hepatitis B virus. It is an incomplete virus and cannot live without the hepatitis B virus. When it is present, it makes hepatitis B a much more serious disease. AIDS AIDS stands for acquired immune deficiency syndrome, and is caused by a virus called the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). The disease was first recognized in 1981 when some male homosexuals in Los Angeles, California, fell ill with a rare form of pneumonia that had only been seen in people with immune suppression. More and more people started appearing with diseases related to low immune systems. . Research and knowledge about this disease process progressed rapidly. By 1985, it was known that a virus caused this disease, that it was transmitted sexually and through blood contact, and a blood test existed which detected antibodies to the virus. It was also known that the disease caused severe damage to the human immune system, and that most people who became infected would die from its complications. Evidence of HIV infections was found from as far back as 1977. Since 1985 there has been much work on finding good treatment for people who are infected. There is also much research into an effective vaccine, and on developing better ways of prevention through education. HIV is transmitted from person to person mainly through sexual activities. The virus is found in large quantities in blood and sexual fluids (semen and vaginal secretions). Transmission occurs when fluid containing a large enough quantity of virus contacts open or abraded skin, or intact mucous membrane (such as the lining of the vagina, the rectum, or the urethra). It can be passed on through blood transfusions, needle sharing, organ transplants, and from mother to fetus during the birth process. By far the greatest numbers of HIV infections have occurred through sexual intercourse. Many have also taken place from infected mothers to their babies during birth, and from receiving transfusions of infected blood. People who have shared needles used to inject drugs without cleaning the needles in between have transmitted the infection to each other. Mostly, however, AIDS is a sexually transmitted disease.
The stages of HIV infection have been described and classified in different ways. Many (but not all) people have an initial sickness soon (a few days to two weeks) after becoming infected. This acute HIV illness is like the flu, with fever, malaise, fatigue, headache and often a rash. It only lasts about a week. Then there is a period of time when there are no symptoms at all. This can last two years to twelve years. During all this time infection is present and the person is infectious to others. When symptoms begin they can often be mild. People might have fatigue, headaches, paresthesias, mild forgetfulness, cough, fever, night sweats, persistent diarrhoea, swollen lymph nodes, weight loss, loss of appetite, persistent yeast infections of the mouth or vagina, and other mild but persistent infections. Later, as the immune system becomes more damaged, there are more serious infections that are more difficult to treat. Many of these infections are the kind that people only get when their immune systems do not work well (opportunistic infections). At this stage cancers and neoplasms can also occur and be very difficult to treat. During this late stage the patient is said to have AIDS. Before that, when there are no symptoms or only milder symptoms, the patient is said to have HIV infection, HIV disease, or ARC (AIDS-related conditions). Most people with AIDS will die from one of these overwhelming infections or cancers. Treatment of AIDS consists mainly of antibiotics for the many infections patients get. There are many ways to support AIDS patients and help with symptom relief. Unfortunately, though, when the immune system is badly damaged, eventually patients will die from overwhelming infection, tumours or the ravages of HIV on other parts of the body. Some antiviral medications that slow down the activity of the HIV are somewhat effective. These are AZT (Azidothymidine), DDC (Dideoxycytosine ), and DOl (Dideoxyinosine ). There is no cure for HIV infection at present. Work on an effective and affordable vaccine against HIV is in progress, but is very complex. Researchers are optimistic that such a vaccine will be developed, but it may take many years. In the meantime many more people are becoming infected, becoming ill and dying.
ANNEXE FEMINIST CHART
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The Feminist Position on Prostitution Type of Feminism Radical
Source of Women’s Oppression Sexual and procreativ e practices. Men are socialised to hav e sexual desires while women are socialised to be submissiv e. Source of oppression are cultural not biological, therefore changing attitudes is desirable.
Socialist
Social and psychological sources including sexual and procreativ e practices. Changing social and economic structurings desirable to eradicate oppression. Class distinctions, corruption of wage labour, and capitalism.
Marxist
Existentialist
Inequality of social freedoms. Improv ing indiv idual liberties and rights are desirable.
Liberal Unconditional Freedoms
Inequality of social freedoms. The need for education and reason to prev ail as a solution. Improv e society by promoting equal treatment between the sexes.
Coercive Effects of Prostitution Prostitution is equated to be on the lev el of rape. Prostitution is slav ery. All women are affected by the coerciv e, exploitativ e, and oppressiv e inclinations of men towards women. Coercion has cultural deriv ations rather than biological ones. Women are coerced into degrading roles by the construction of social class systems. Without the presence of capitalism, women would choose other roles. The coercion is economic in its source. Wage labour is inv oluntary serv itude and the subordination of the dignity of human beings, exacerbated by the definition of social and occupational classes Women are not coerced into prostitution. Prostitution can be a liberating and empowering experience. Where there is little freedom or few choices, prostitution is a good option. Biological differences important. Prostitution deriv es from a natural biological urge. The prostitute acts of free choice. That choice can be seen as an ordinary business decision.
Solution to the Social Presence of Prostitution Eradicate male oppression. Change attitudes and promote social change towards greater equality between the sexes. If prostitution is to be illegal the client should be equally pursued by the law.
Role of the Woman as a Prostitute The prostitute is a v ictim of a system of male oppression. Prostitution is not a harmless priv ate transaction. It affects all women.
Degrading Effects
Position on Decriminalisation Against Decriminalisation will not solv e the problem. Changing men’s attitudes and fostering social equality are more important.
Prostitution Should Be Eradicated Yes Eradicate inequality between the sexes by discouraging any actions that degrade all women.
Seeks non-legal remedies such as changing the social structurings. When exploitativ e economic systems such as capitalism disappear, so will prostitution. Seeks non-legal remedies. When exploitativ e economic systems such as capitalism disappear, so will prostitution.
The prostitute is a v ictim of the system.
Prostitution is a corruption of the capitalist system.
Against It is more important to change the social structuring that cause prostitution in the first place. Socialists do not seek a legal remedy to prostitution. Against It is more important to attack the underlying cause of prostitution by eliminating capitalism. Marxists do not seek a legal remedy to prostitution.
Yes Eradicate exploitativ e economic systems such as capitalism. Focus on human needs in a more caring way.
The prostitute is a v ictim of the economic system.
Prostitution is degrading of the dignity of humans caught in inv oluntary serv itude to a system that unconscionably exploits people.
Encourages actions that liberate women as free human beings. Greater lev el of equality between the sexes is desirable.
The competent woman has a choice to be an entrepreneur and find methods to support herself.
Women of all descriptions and occupations possess extraordinary powers to ov ercome adv ersity. Prostitution is not degrading, rather it is empowering to women.
For
No
Conditions for prostitutes can be improv ed through education and in seeking greater equality between the sexes.
The prostitute is an entrepreneur contracting out her labour as is her right. As with any business her ability to thwart danger is dependent upon her awareness of the world.
Prostitution is a business. In all businesses there are degrading aspects that must be ov ercome.
For
No Prostitution is a civ il right.
Prostitution is degrading to the prostitute and to women in general. Prostitution is equated to be on the lev el of rape.
Yes Eradicate systems like capitalism and prostitution will disappear.
Liberal Freedoms With Moral Constraints
Inequality of social freedoms. The need for education and reason to prev ail as a solution. Improv e society by promoting equal treatment between the sexes.
In theory the liberal These liberals question The prostitute is an Education, reason and Qualified No might object to the the possibility that a entrepreneur with the equality between the Prostitution is a civ il right undue effect of cultural prostitute can make an right to contract out her sexes could improv e the but should not be persuasion on informed choice, giv en serv ices. Prostitution has conditions of prostitution. encouraged. uneducated women certain lev els of problems associated Liberals hint there are interfering in her search educational and cultural with it and should not be probably better choices for autonomy, thus awareness. encouraged. a woman could make. being a coerciv e influence in her decision making. Primary source material, D. Kelly Weisberg, Applications of Feminist Legal Theory to Women’s Liv es; secondary sources, Imelda Whelehan, Modern Feminist Thought; and Alison M. Jaggar in The Philosophy of Sex; Rosemarie Tong in Feminist Though
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