Regional updates: Africa

Our members are listed on the left or you can click the red umbrellas on the map.

Regional Board Members

Pamela Chakuvinga (Sisonke), South Africa

Patrick Fotso (Alcondoms Cameroun), Cameroon

Regional Network

The African Sex Workers Alliance (ASWA) is a pan-African network of sex worker-led national networks and national and local organisations led by and/or working with female, male and transgender sex workers. It was formed in 2009 by sex workers and women’s activists and non-governmental organisations and is now based in Nairobi, Kenya.

News articles from Africa region are listed below.

Regional updates

4th مايو 2016 | Region: Africa

On the 29th of April, 2016, sex work leaders in Kampala, Uganda, met to discuss the formation of a new sex worker-led network. They decided to form the Uganda Network for Sex Workers Organization (UNESO) to replace the former Uganda Harmonized Rights Alliance.

2nd مايو 2016 | Region: Africa

In a three-day intensive training, African sex workers were trained as Regional Community Experts for the Global Fund.

The technical assistance training for regional sex workers experts included sex workers from Kenya, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and the ASWA Regional Secretariat. Sex workers learned the skills and knowledge that they will use to train sex workers in other countries on the Global Fund and its processes.

2nd مارس 2016 | Region: Africa

Sex workers and members of the LGBTQ community in Winnipeg, Canada held three Valentine’s card-making events in February 2016. The events in Winnipeg were organised by members of the Winnipeg Working Group, Genderfest Winnipeg, and the International Community of Women Living with HIV (ICW).

10th فبراير 2016 | Region: Africa

NSWP member SWEAT and Sisonke in Cape Town, South Africa are monitoring the court case of Zwelethu Mthethwa. He is accused of murdering Nokuphila Moudy Kumalo, a 23-year-old sex worker who was found dead on Ravenscraig Road, Woodstock, Cape Town on the 14 of April, 2013.

22nd يناير 2016 | Region: Africa

NIKAT, a sex worker-led organisation and NSWP member has started a community-led radio project in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The founding members of NIKAT wanted to find new ways to do outreach to the community in Addis Ababa and they decided to start a sex worker-led radio programme on FM Shegar 102.1. The programme is called Betegna Radio Programme.

27th نوفمبر 2015 | Region: Africa

African sex workers’ rights activists were recently trained on how work with regional, and international human rights processes in Port Louis, Mauritius. The goal of the training was to help sex workers’ right activists work with the African Commission on Human and People's Rights (ACPHR) as well as other human rights mechanisms including treaty bodies and conventions, to hold their countries accountable when their rights are violated.

5th نوفمبر 2015 | Region: Africa

The African Sex Workers Alliance (ASWA) has condemned the recent transphobic attack on Beyonce Karungi, a Ugandan trans sex worker activist and board member of ASWA. Karungi was attacked by unknown assailants in late October and suffered multiple injuries.

5th نوفمبر 2015 | Region: Africa

Recent media reporting on sex work in various African countries show that sex workers continue to be portrayed negatively. Media outlets are further stereotyping sex workers using unsavouraly labels as well as portraying them in negative light. For example, in Kenya, one media station said sex workers ‘prey’ on married men while another termed them as ‘greedy’.

5th نوفمبر 2015 | Region: Africa

The African Sex Workers Alliance (ASWA) is co-organising a key populations pre-conference for this year’s International Conference on AIDS and STIs in Africa (ICASA) in Zimbabwe.

4th نوفمبر 2015 | Region: Africa

The African Sex Workers Alliance (ASWA) sends condolences to the family and friends of Joel Gustave Nana, the immediate former Executive Director of African Men for Sexual Health and Rights (AMSHER), who passed away last month.

28th أكتوبر 2015 | Region: Africa

There are unique challenges for African trans sex workers in their lives and work. Two trans sex workers in Uganda and South Africa have shared the unique challenges they face, including transphobia. ASWA board member and trans sex worker from Uganda, Beyonce Karungi as well as refugee trans sex worker, Flavina from South Africa, have both shared their life stories in articles published recently.

28th أكتوبر 2015 | Region: Africa

PrEP should be easily accessible to sex workers in Nigeria as an HIV prevention tool, an activist has urged with the Nigerian Sex Workers’ Alliance. Writing for the HIVE, an online journal on sexual and reproductive health, the coordinator of the Nigerian Sex Workers Alliance, Narah (a pseudonym), said that sex workers are being left behind when PrEP is offered.

24th أكتوبر 2015 | Region: Africa

Sex workers in three Southern African countries are the first beneficiaries of a programme that will see provide free HIV self-testing kits. Population Services International (PSI) is rolling out oral-swab HIV self-test kits to sex workers and other key populations in Malawi, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. According to PSI, the self-testing kits are important because many people have not been tested because of stigma or limited access to health care facilities.

24th أكتوبر 2015 | Region: Africa

Stigmatisation and discrimination of sex workers at hospitals has been identified as one of the key barriers in accessing health services, a study has shown.

The study, conducted by the Center for Sexual Health and HIV/AIDS Research (CeSHHAR) indicates that, in some hospitals and clinics in Zimbabwe, sex workers face hostile reception from health care providers and this hampers their access to HIV related treatment and care.

14th أكتوبر 2015 | Region: Africa

Sex workers were joined by human rights activists in Nakuru County, Kenya in protest of the murder of four female sex workers. According to the Kenya Sex Workers Alliance (KESWA), seven sex workers have been killed over the past month. Members of KESWA suspect these are serial killings. Four sex workers were killed in the past week while three additional murders were only discovered when investigations were being conducted.