OSI Grantee Presents Successful Model for Collaboration between Sex Workers and Law Enforcement

Sex workers worldwide identify police violence and harassment as one of their most pressing and pervasive human rights concerns. In Kisumu, Kenya, things were no different until Keeping Alive Societies' Hope (KASH) stepped in.

With financial and technical support from the Open Society Institute, KASH is:

• fostering collaboration between sex workers and local police by organizing sensitization workshops for law enforcement and sex workers,
• training police officers and sex workers as peer educators for their communities,
• developing a system for documenting human rights violations against sex workers, and
• organizing monthly review forums for police and sex worker peer educators to meet and discuss the documentation results in order to revise their efforts accordingly.

The project has had immediate results. When three sex workers at a local hotel were arrested without charges and forced to submit to HIV tests, a newly trained peer mediator police officer intervened and explained to his colleagues how their actions had violated the sex workers' human rights. The women were released. Similarly, another police peer mediator stepped in when a sex worker had taken a client's DVD player in compensation for denial of payment. The matter was solved justly; the item was returned and payment received.

KASH's director, Tom Odhiambo, says that since the project began sex workers have reported fewer cases of violence and harassment from police.  He attributes this change to a better understanding among sex workers of their rights and a greater consciousness among police about sex workers, including the stigma and discrimination they routinely experience from multiple sectors within society, and the ways in which the actions of police contribute to this environment.

KASH receives support from the Open Society Initiative for East Africa and the OSI Public Health Program, including its Sexual Health and Rights Project, Health Media Initiative, and Law and Health Initiative.