: FEMALE SEX WORKERS : THEIR SEXUAL HEALTH : Viagra : Kamagra : Forzest
In the almost 40 years that I have been working in the sexuality education field, I have worked with all types of populations. I have worked with young and old people, men and women, fishing folk in remote villages in Mexico only reachable by boat, and academicians in important universities. There was one population that I had never worked with, however, in spite of its importance as a socalled “vulnerable group”-commercial sex workers. Although this was in part simply because I had not had the opportunity to do so, because I had not been asked, there was more to it than that. At least in part, it was because from a gender perspective, I felt that any activity that implies the subordination of women, makes sexuality a commodity, is part of a system of exploitation, and frequently involves gender violence, is inherently wrong.Nonetheless, when I was approached by an international organization to prepare a manual for sexual health promoters and female sex workers, I decided to meet the challenge. I may not be a specialist in the sociology and anthropology of sex work, but I do have a life long expertise in designing interventions that help people discover ways to improve how they deal with and live their own sexuality. I have also worked intensively with health professionals and felt that I could translate that experience into this workshop and manual.I researched the topic, read some of the available materials, and, with the collaboration of an NGO that had a wide experience working with sex workers, the manual -was finalized. The title in Spanish, Hablando Entre Nos Otras Sobre Salud Sexual (Talking Among Ourselves About Sexual Health), reflects the fact the female sex -workers are frequently discriminated against and stigmatized by the rest of society’s women, who feel that sex workers are “the others” as opposed to ourselves.
Although most of the activities had been validated separately, the real moment to test the design came when a regional workshop was jointly organized by the Pan American Health Organization, the Mexican Association for Sex Education, and the Coordinating Committee of the Global AIDS Program. The workshop was intended both for health promoters working within health ministries or NGOs and female sex workers who are acting as health promoters.The content of the workshop centered around themes that had been identified as priorities by the sex workers themselves. The women wanted to discuss the meaning of sex work and develop an understanding of sexuality and sexual health. They wanted to explore how a number of topics interrelated with sex work, including human sexual response, eroticism, sexual rights, sexual diversity, gender, gender violence, and self esteem. In addition, they wanted to discuss the health conditions of sex work and learn about HIV/AIDS, sexually transmitted infections (STIs), and their relation to AIDS, pregnancy and delivery, contraceptive methods, condom use, and negotiating condom use in commercial sex work settings. Finally, they wanted to learn how to organize and plan within the context of sex work.Although the workshop was designed and intended solely for women, two men and 30 women came together for five days from all Central American countries and Panama. Participants came from ministries of health and local programs involved in the health care of commercial sex workers. Many participants were commercial sex workers acting as health promoters.LESSONS LEARNEDThe 24-hour workshop proceeded according to plan and was very successfully evaluated by participants. Below are just a few of the important lessons we all learned.* Working with sex workers is not more difficult than working with other groups. Too often we have preconceptions about the difficulties and problems of working with groups that include sexual workers. In the case of this workshop, we experienced one of the best groups ever to participate in any training course. The participants were respectful yet open to new ideas and self criticism. They were very interested in acquiring knowledge while at the same time willing to participate in all the exercises. One of the high points of the workshop came when a participant showed a film on the marginal population in San Salvador. As we watched, everybody realized that the sex -workers shown in very sad circumstances in the film were, in fact, the very same women who were in the room participating in this workshop. In any other case, it would have been an awkward situation; this group, however, reacted with great politeness and respect, and the women involved were not embarrassed or humiliated.* There is a lot to be learned even from the most disenfranchised groups. In a mixed group such as the one that participated in this workshop, it would have been expected that the sex workers had been on the receiving end of information and insight provided by the health professionals present. However, the learning experience came mainly from the sex workers. When a role play on condom negotiation was indicated by the program, we did not have an imaginary role play, but rather a real demonstration of how these negotiations are carried out. The real problems, constraints, and limitations of what a sex worker can and cannot do were brought to the group.* Socio-economic, cultural, and political contexts are crucial. The -whole phenomenon of sex work shows that the experience of female sex workers cannot be understood if we disregard the socio-economic, cultural, and political contexts. Many of the participants shared their histories; we heard mostly sad stories of incest, conflict, violence, almost no schooling and, always, poverty, extreme poverty. In most cases, sex work was the only viable alternative for supporting their children. Almost all of the sex workers in the workshop said they would have chosen other occupations if they had had the opportunity to do so, and certainly that they do not want their daughters to follow in their steps. As much as we need to work on prevention of HIV and STIs, we need to struggle for comprehensive sexual health for all with a full exercise of sexual rights, and to contribute to whatever measures are necessary for the eradication of poverty.A FEW WORDS SAY IT ALLAs I said earlier, the workshop was extremely well received by participants. Two remarks from sex workers who participated stay with me even today:All these years I have been called a SEX worker and [it was] not until today [that] I understood what my sexuality is about.I walked in as a whore and I walk out as a lady, a sexually healthy lady.Esther Corona*PresidentMexican Association for Sex Education (AMES)Mexico City, Mexico* Esther Corona also serves as the secretary for the Americas for the World Association for Sexual Health and is currently a SIECUS board member.Copyright Sex Information and Education Council of the U.S. Spring 2005Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning Company. All rights Reserved
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