Empower Foundation

"I am very happy here. I practice my profession in a safe and protective environment" says Lek, part-owner of the bar "Can Do" (an initiative of EMPOWER Foundation in Chiang Mai, Thailand) and a sex worker for six years. Lek is one of the over 50,000 sex workers in Thailand whose life has been directly enhanced by the Thai Foundation Empower which, over the last 25 years, has raised awareness of the dignity in sex work.

In Thailand millions are employed in sex work and a large majority is routinely harassed, abused and exploited. But thanks to organizations such as the EMPOWER Foundation, the sex workers are now not only being supported and equipped to take their lives in their own hands, but also given a public voice and a friendlier public space. The comprehensive and sustainable EMPOWER (Education Means Protection of Women Engaged in Re - Creation) model, systematically built over the years, has also empowered sex workers to fight for their rights and well-being, and has significantly changed the way sex workers are perceived in public.

EMPOWER is a not-for-profit organization that focuses on promoting the rights of sex workers and reducing their vulnerability to HIV.

The Foundation’s programmes, designed, managed and implemented by sex workers themselves, are geared to the well-being of the sex workers when they are working and after retirement too. Through twelve centres in eleven locations - Patpong (Bangkok), Chiang Mai, Chiang Rai, Mae Sai and Patong Beach(Phuket) Krabi, Mae Sot, Samut Sakhon, Nontaburi, Muktahahan, Ubon Udon - the Foundation members share safe sex tips, including access to quality condoms and information.

Through various innovative ways- street theatre, T-shirt messages, posters, cartoons, and innovative public education games – the Foundation reaches out to the public with a view to ending discrimination against sex workers. It aims at raising the respect level of sex workers among the government, media, non-governmental organizations and the general public. The Foundation provides the sex workers a range of services from translating a letter to teaching English and foreign exchange calculations.

Chantawipa Apisuk, the founder of EMPOWER sowed the seeds of the Foundation in 1984 by offering English lessons to the bar girls in Patpong. Soon, the owner of a bar offered space for the classes in the afternoons because he felt it would be good for his business if the girls could communicate in English with customers. The ability to speak and read English turned out to be more than a business and negotiation tool for the girls; it enabled them to establish channels of communication to protect them, learn about their rights, and reach out to a wider audience.

The Foundation's main pillar is its firm belief in the basic human rights of all people, including sex workers. It alsolobbies with the government to extend labour protection measures to sex workers and to decriminalize prostitution.

In September 2005, the Foundation aired a radio program in Chiang Mai and Mae Sai to educate sex workers on their rights.

In 2006, sex workers of Empower opened their own bar "Can Do" in Chiang Mai as a model for law and policy makers – an experitainment – that provides its workers with all benefits and protections of the Thai Labor Law including social security benefits and good occupational health and safety standards.

EMPOWER publishes "Bad Girls", a Thai language newsletter, which allows sex workers to express themselves freely.

In 2008, at the 17th International AIDS Conference in Mexico City, EMPOWER received the Red Ribbon award given by UNAIDS and UNDP recognizing sex workers in Thailand as individuals who mobilize the community and who were experts in the field of HIV.

Sex workers through Empower provide inspiration and guidance for many UN agencies, NGO's and community groups. Sex workers continually remind the world that sex work is decent work and sex workers must be treated with respect and admiration and dignity.