EMPOWER
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EMPOWER (Education Means Protection Of Women Engaged in Recreation) or Moolniti Songserm Okard Pooying (Thai: มูลนิธิส่งเสริมโอกาสผู้หญิง) is a non-profit organisation in Thailand that supports sex workers by offering free classes in language, health, law and pre-college education as well as individual counseling. The organisation also lobbies the government in an attempt to extend regular labour protections to sex workers.
Unlike most Thai organisations operating in this field, EMPOWER takes a neutral stance towards sex work and does not pressure people into leaving the trade. Partly because of this, EMPOWER receives little financial support from the Thai government; the bulk of the donations come from abroad.
EMPOWER publishes a Thai language newsletter called "Bad Girls" which allows sex workers to express themselves.
EMPOWER was founded in 1985 by Chantawipa Apisuk; she still runs the head office in Nonthaburi Province. The organisation maintains main offices in Patpong (Bangkok), Chiang Mai, Mae Sai[1] and Patong Beach, Phuket.
In 2003 the organisation published a report stating that many anti-trafficking organisations fail to see a difference between migrant sex workers and women forced to prostitute themselves against their will. They documented a May 2003 "raid and rescue" operation on a brothel in Chiang Mai that was carried out without the consent of the workers, resulting in numerous human rights violations.[2]
At the International AIDS Conference in Bangkok in 2004, EMPOWER set up a mock go go bar complete with a dancer to highlight efforts to increase condom use among sex workers; this was criticised by then Health Minister Sudarat Keyuraphan.
Shortly after the tsunami of December 2004, EMPOWER opened their office in Patong Beach, Phuket and published a report estimating that over 2,000 sex workers had died and lamenting the lack of support for migrant sex workers affected by the flood.[3] In September 2005 they started a radio programme for sex workers in Phuket.[4]
In 2006 EMPOWER opened a worker-owned bar in Chiang Mai, named "Can Do". It is intended as a model for exemplary working conditions in the industry.[5]
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ Report on EMPOWER, Untamed Travel Magazine, August 2003
- ^ A report by Empower Chiang Mai on the human rights violations women are subjected to when "rescued" by anti-trafficking groups who employ methods using deception, force and coercion, June 2003
- ^ Empower: Update No. 2: Situation of Sex Workers in South Thailand, January 18, 2005
- ^ EMPOWERING SEX WORKERS: Phuket radio helps with rights, The Nation, 20 November 2005.
- ^ Can Do, EMPOWER Foundation. Accessed 10 March 2008.
