By Amanda Sangeetha Thomas
One of the first thoughts that come to mind when someone says Bangkok is, sex industry. It’s true that Bangkok does have a large and eventful night life and sex industry that caters to any and almost every sort of fetish and preference. Since the Vietnam War, Thailand has gained international notoriety among travellers as a sex tourism destination. Selling sex may remain illegal in Thailand but it is also still lives right there in Pat Pong, Bangkok. Where there is a sex industry, there will be sex workers.
Empower Foundation ("Education Means Protection Of Women Engaged in Recreation"), also known as Centre for Sex Workers' Protection or Moolniti Songserm Okard Pooying, 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 counselling. It was founded in 1985 by Chantawipa Apisuk. The organisation also lobbies the government to extend regular labour protections to sex workers and to legalize prostitution. Unlike most Thai organisations operating in this field, Empower takes a neutral stance towards sex work and does not pressure people to leave the trade. Partly because of this, Empower receives little financial support from the Thai government; the bulk of the donations come from abroad.
Many sex workers who work in this industry don’t really have the confidence to achieve any sort of goals except to work to take care of themselves. Empower aims to help these women. With this current age of technology and communication, these women learn how to use the internet to their advantage and equip themselves with information that is vital to their wellbeing and legal status as a citizen of Thailand. At the Empower foundation they teach these girls to speak the English language so it would help them when dealing with their foreign customers. Some of these girls use the computers and free internet that is provided at the centre to chat and keep in touch with some of their valuable ex-customers.
The government did have talks in 2003 to legalise prostitution and the sex business. By legalising the sex business, the government will stand to gain in economic profit and this will indefinitely boost the country’s economy. Legalisation would give the estimated 300,000 sex workers access to social services, healthcare, and protection from abuse while exposing corruption among the industry's gatekeepers - police, politicians and business owners. Chantawipa Apisuk, who runs Empower says as long as prostitution is illegal, "the mafia will be the employer and ... the employees will be sex slaves".
In 2005 The Rockefeller Foundation agreed to support Empower in becoming Empower University. In many ways, Empower had been a university for many years. In addition to the 30,000 sex workers who have studied with Empower, Empower Foundation has increasingly become recognized as the strongest and most successful organization for sex workers in South East Asia. This recognition has seen Empower sharing skills, information and methodology with an increasing number and variety of groups and individuals nationally, regionally and internationally. Empower hosts visits at least once a week for groups and individuals be they students, journalists, researchers, government officials, women’s organizations or those working for UN bodies.
Empower has a long history (since 1985) of offering internships and trainings to a diverse range of people. Interns have included people from Trent University, Harvard University, Brown University, AFS Programme Australian Volunteers International and John Hopkins University.
Amanda Sangeetha Thomas, 21, currently pursuing majoring in Communications and International Studies, suffers from sleep deprivation.
No comments:
Post a Comment