Sex workers show red light to AIDS at global forum

Time is GMT + 8 hours
Posted: 17-Aug-2006 04:05 hrs
http://www.todayonline.com/articles/136805.asp

Sex workers perform a show about safe sex during the XVI
International Aids Conference in Toronto, Canada on 15 August 2006.
With the crack of a whip and swish of maracas, dozens of prostitutes
from Bangladesh to Brazil and from Cambodia to Canada demanded
recognition of their frontline role in the war on AIDS.

With the crack of a whip and swish of maracas, dozens of
prostitutes from Bangladesh to Brazil and from Cambodia to Canada
demanded recognition of their frontline role in the war on AIDS.
.
"Sex Workers' Rights: Time to Deliver," they chanted Wednesday, as
their rowdy protest echoed through the vast Toronto conference centre
hosting the world's biggest-ever meeting on a disease which has
filled 25 million graves.
.
With sexy ribbon silhouettes drawn on their tight blue tee-shirts,
they drew numbers from more than 20 nations, including Thailand,
Brazil, Cambodia, Bangladesh, India and the United States.
.
An Indian transvestite lent a splash of color in a sari, as
protestors shook maracas and blew whistles, while passing from hand
to hand a mean-looking leather multi-thonged whip, which sparked
hilarity at a security checkpoint.
.
"People must realize we are doing a job," said Anna-Louise Crago, a
founder-member of Stella, the first sex worker association set up in
Canada's French-speaking province of Quebec.
.
"The world needs sex workers to battle AIDS, and we need to be
recognized by authorities as crucial to the struggle against HIV,"
she said.
.
A Thai woman, who didn't give her name added: "Sex work is work. Sex
workers are workers. We need job security, health care."
.
Their cause won immediate support from top brass of the global AIDS
battle, as Mark Wainberg, co-president of the 16th International AIDS
conference, happened on the protest, by chance.
.
Slightly red-faced, the besuited, bespectacled Canadian academic took
up their chants, which reverberated through the conference centre
hosting 20,000 delegates.
.
Statistics back up sex workers' claims to be at the epicentre of the
epidemic.
.
According to the agency UNAIDS, the march of the disease in many
nations is underpinned by paid-for sex.
.
In China, it is estimated that sex workers and clients represent 20
percent of those with HIV. In Ethiopia, 73 percent of sex workers are
infected, along with 50 percent in South Africa and 31 percent in
Ivory Coast.
.
Demonstrators denounced hassle from governments and police from
numerous nations, which they said forced them to operate
clandestinely and cut them out official HIV prevention programs.
.
Canadians among them accused their country's new Conservative
government of forcing them out of major cities in clean-up campaigns.
.
One woman from Mali bemoaned the lack of funding for anti-AIDS
programs for sex workers, and all denounced the United States over
rules which bar HIV aid from groups that support prostitution.
.
"Society must accept the existence of sex workers, and we need free
condoms," said Awa Dambele, from Bamako, who warned that condoms were
expensive in Mali and poverty-stricken prostitutes had to work
without them.
.
Catherine Healy, a sex worker from New Zealand, said the situation
for her counterparts had got better.
.
"The Ministry of Health was one of our first allies -- the ministry
funded us to distribute condoms to our peers," she said.
.
But up until prostitution was decriminalized in her country in 2003 --
police still harassed sex workers, seizing the condoms and hampering
effective HIV prevention.
.
For the Indian transvestite, who refused to be named, the logic was
simple: unless sex workers are brought into the fight, AIDS will
never be conquered.
.
"All the governments should give rights to sex workers, all the
policies will go down the drain if sex workers don't get their
rights." — AFP
With the crack of a whip and swish of maracas, dozens of prostitutes
from Bangladesh to Brazil and from Cambodia to Canada demanded
recognition of their frontline role in the war on AIDS.
.
"Sex Workers' Rights: Time to Deliver," they chanted Wednesday, as
their rowdy protest echoed through the vast Toronto conference centre
hosting the world's biggest-ever meeting on a disease which has
filled 25 million graves.
.
With sexy ribbon silhouettes drawn on their tight blue tee-shirts,
they drew numbers from more than 20 nations, including Thailand,
Brazil, Cambodia, Bangladesh, India and the United States.
.
An Indian transvestite lent a splash of color in a sari, as
protestors shook maracas and blew whistles, while passing from hand
to hand a mean-looking leather multi-thonged whip, which sparked
hilarity at a security checkpoint.
.
"People must realize we are doing a job," said Anna-Louise Crago, a
founder-member of Stella, the first sex worker association set up in
Canada's French-speaking province of Quebec.
.
"The world needs sex workers to battle AIDS, and we need to be
recognized by authorities as crucial to the struggle against HIV,"
she said.
.
A Thai woman, who didn't give her name added: "Sex work is work. Sex
workers are workers. We need job security, health care."
.
Their cause won immediate support from top brass of the global AIDS
battle, as Mark Wainberg, co-president of the 16th International AIDS
conference, happened on the protest, by chance.
.
Slightly red-faced, the besuited, bespectacled Canadian academic took
up their chants, which reverberated through the conference centre
hosting 20,000 delegates.
.
Statistics back up sex workers' claims to be at the epicentre of the
epidemic.
.
According to the agency UNAIDS, the march of the disease in many
nations is underpinned by paid-for sex.
.
In China, it is estimated that sex workers and clients represent 20
percent of those with HIV. In Ethiopia, 73 percent of sex workers are
infected, along with 50 percent in South Africa and 31 percent in
Ivory Coast.
.
Demonstrators denounced hassle from governments and police from
numerous nations, which they said forced them to operate
clandestinely and cut them out official HIV prevention programs.
.
Canadians among them accused their country's new Conservative
government of forcing them out of major cities in clean-up campaigns.
.
One woman from Mali bemoaned the lack of funding for anti-AIDS
programs for sex workers, and all denounced the United States over
rules which bar HIV aid from groups that support prostitution.
.
"Society must accept the existence of sex workers, and we need free
condoms," said Awa Dambele, from Bamako, who warned that condoms were
expensive in Mali and poverty-stricken prostitutes had to work
without them.
.
Catherine Healy, a sex worker from New Zealand, said the situation
for her counterparts had got better.
.
"The Ministry of Health was one of our first allies -- the ministry
funded us to distribute condoms to our peers," she said.
.
But up until prostitution was decriminalized in her country in 2003 --
police still harassed sex workers, seizing the condoms and hampering
effective HIV prevention.
.
For the Indian transvestite, who refused to be named, the logic was
simple: unless sex workers are brought into the fight, AIDS will
never be conquered.
.
"All the governments should give rights to sex workers, all the
policies will go down the drain if sex workers don't get their
rights." — AFP With the crack of a whip and swish of maracas, dozens
of prostitutes from Bangladesh to Brazil and from Cambodia to Canada
demanded recognition of their frontline role in the war on AIDS.
.
"Sex Workers' Rights: Time to Deliver," they chanted Wednesday, as
their rowdy protest echoed through the vast Toronto conference centre
hosting the world's biggest-ever meeting on a disease which has
filled 25 million graves.
.
With sexy ribbon silhouettes drawn on their tight blue tee-shirts,
they drew numbers from more than 20 nations, including Thailand,
Brazil, Cambodia, Bangladesh, India and the United States.
.
An Indian transvestite lent a splash of color in a sari, as
protestors shook maracas and blew whistles, while passing from hand
to hand a mean-looking leather multi-thonged whip, which sparked
hilarity at a security checkpoint.
.
"People must realize we are doing a job," said Anna-Louise Crago, a
founder-member of Stella, the first sex worker association set up in
Canada's French-speaking province of Quebec.
.
"The world needs sex workers to battle AIDS, and we need to be
recognized by authorities as crucial to the struggle against HIV,"
she said.
.
A Thai woman, who didn't give her name added: "Sex work is work. Sex
workers are workers. We need job security, health care."
.
Their cause won immediate support from top brass of the global AIDS
battle, as Mark Wainberg, co-president of the 16th International AIDS
conference, happened on the protest, by chance.
.
Slightly red-faced, the besuited, bespectacled Canadian academic took
up their chants, which reverberated through the conference centre
hosting 20,000 delegates.
.
Statistics back up sex workers' claims to be at the epicentre of the
epidemic.
.
According to the agency UNAIDS, the march of the disease in many
nations is underpinned by paid-for sex.
.
In China, it is estimated that sex workers and clients represent 20
percent of those with HIV. In Ethiopia, 73 percent of sex workers are
infected, along with 50 percent in South Africa and 31 percent in
Ivory Coast.
.
Demonstrators denounced hassle from governments and police from
numerous nations, which they said forced them to operate
clandestinely and cut them out official HIV prevention programs.
.
Canadians among them accused their country's new Conservative
government of forcing them out of major cities in clean-up campaigns.
.
One woman from Mali bemoaned the lack of funding for anti-AIDS
programs for sex workers, and all denounced the United States over
rules which bar HIV aid from groups that support prostitution.
.
"Society must accept the existence of sex workers, and we need free
condoms," said Awa Dambele, from Bamako, who warned that condoms were
expensive in Mali and poverty-stricken prostitutes had to work
without them.
.
Catherine Healy, a sex worker from New Zealand, said the situation
for her counterparts had got better.
.
"The Ministry of Health was one of our first allies -- the ministry
funded us to distribute condoms to our peers," she said.
.
But up until prostitution was decriminalized in her country in 2003 --
police still harassed sex workers, seizing the condoms and hampering
effective HIV prevention.
.
For the Indian transvestite, who refused to be named, the logic was
simple: unless sex workers are brought into the fight, AIDS will
never be conquered.
.
"All the governments should give rights to sex workers, all the
policies will go down the drain if sex workers don't get their
rights." — AFP With the crack of a whip and swish of maracas, dozens
of prostitutes from Bangladesh to Brazil and from Cambodia to Canada
demanded recognition of their frontline role in the war on AIDS.
.
"Sex Workers' Rights: Time to Deliver," they chanted Wednesday, as
their rowdy protest echoed through the vast Toronto conference centre
hosting the world's biggest-ever meeting on a disease which has
filled 25 million graves.
.
With sexy ribbon silhouettes drawn on their tight blue tee-shirts,
they drew numbers from more than 20 nations, including Thailand,
Brazil, Cambodia, Bangladesh, India and the United States.
.
An Indian transvestite lent a splash of color in a sari, as
protestors shook maracas and blew whistles, while passing from hand
to hand a mean-looking leather multi-thonged whip, which sparked
hilarity at a security checkpoint.
.
"People must realize we are doing a job," said Anna-Louise Crago, a
founder-member of Stella, the first sex worker association set up in
Canada's French-speaking province of Quebec.
.
"The world needs sex workers to battle AIDS, and we need to be
recognized by authorities as crucial to the struggle against HIV,"
she said.
.
A Thai woman, who didn't give her name added: "Sex work is work. Sex
workers are workers. We need job security, health care."
.
Their cause won immediate support from top brass of the global AIDS
battle, as Mark Wainberg, co-president of the 16th International AIDS
conference, happened on the protest, by chance.
.
Slightly red-faced, the besuited, bespectacled Canadian academic took
up their chants, which reverberated through the conference centre
hosting 20,000 delegates.
.
Statistics back up sex workers' claims to be at the epicentre of the
epidemic.
.
According to the agency UNAIDS, the march of the disease in many
nations is underpinned by paid-for sex.
.
In China, it is estimated that sex workers and clients represent 20
percent of those with HIV. In Ethiopia, 73 percent of sex workers are
infected, along with 50 percent in South Africa and 31 percent in
Ivory Coast.
.
Demonstrators denounced hassle from governments and police from
numerous nations, which they said forced them to operate
clandestinely and cut them out official HIV prevention programs.
.
Canadians among them accused their country's new Conservative
government of forcing them out of major cities in clean-up campaigns.
.
One woman from Mali bemoaned the lack of funding for anti-AIDS
programs for sex workers, and all denounced the United States over
rules which bar HIV aid from groups that support prostitution.
.
"Society must accept the existence of sex workers, and we need free
condoms," said Awa Dambele, from Bamako, who warned that condoms were
expensive in Mali and poverty-stricken prostitutes had to work
without them.
.
Catherine Healy, a sex worker from New Zealand, said the situation
for her counterparts had got better.
.
"The Ministry of Health was one of our first allies -- the ministry
funded us to distribute condoms to our peers," she said.
.
But up until prostitution was decriminalized in her country in 2003 --
police still harassed sex workers, seizing the condoms and hampering
effective HIV prevention.
.
For the Indian transvestite, who refused to be named, the logic was
simple: unless sex workers are brought into the fight, AIDS will
never be conquered.
.
"All the governments should give rights to sex workers, all the
policies will go down the drain if sex workers don't get their
rights." — AFP