Queer Sex Workers Initiative For Refugees (QSWIR) is a non-profit LGBTQI+ sex worker and refugee-led community based organisation. It is based in Nairobi and was initiated in August 2019 by refugee queer sex workers.
Tell us about your organisation:
Most LGBTQI+ refugees living in Nairobi don’t have opportunities of formal employment or any form of employment at all, most of them secretly resort to sex work for survival to pay rent, buy food and to cater for their health needs among other needs. However, in the refugee community, there has been no organisation to specifically cater for the needs of the queer sex workers, which are very unique and hardly considered. Our motivation to form a queer sex workers' organisation also emerged from the continuous sidelining and discrimination of LGBTQI+ sex workers in the community. We found a need to protect and promote sex workers’ human rights, to also address fear to say the they are sex workers, the fear to be shamed and discriminated against. We wanted to make a safe space for queer sex workers, a space where they are understood as people and also a space where their needs are understood and met.
What is the organisation's membership?
QSWIR is a member of queer-led coalitions in addition to having individual members. We are full members of the Refugee Coalition of East Africa (ReFCEA), an umbrella organisation that unites all LGBTQI+ refugee-led organisations in Kenya together, and full members of African Sex Workers Alliance (ASWA).
We are also members of the Global Network of Sex Work Projects, a global organisation that advocates for rights-based services, freedom from abuse and discrimination, freedom from punitive laws, policies, and practices, and sex workers' self-determination.
What is the organisation's vision?
Our vision is to empower, de-stigmatise and create a safe working environment for LGBTQI+ sex workers among refugees and the local community.
What is your mission?
Our mission statement is “To improve the lives of queer sex workers through advocacy for their rights provision of standard health needs, economic empowerment, violence and safety.”
What are your core values?
Non-discrimination: We accord equal opportunities to all within and outside the organisation and treat everybody equally without bias or discrimination of any kind.
Transparency and Accountability: We are open and take responsibility for the affairs of the group and make it easy for all stakeholders to understand the processes and activities.
Honesty and Integrity: We are principled and fair in service delivery and conduct all activities with unfailing commitment to high professional standards.
Teamwork: We create a climate of trust and respect that empowers the staff to develop to the fullest by encouraging excellence, innovation and shared ideas.
Innovation and Creativity: Endeavouring to cope with constant change by cultivating a culture of creativity and innovation among staff and the local community and utilising the most modern approaches to in the achievement of the group objectives.
Quality Service Delivery: We provide high quality and sustainable services which are timely and affordable.
Commitment to Duty: We display commitment in whatever we do.
Diligence: We display steady effort and show of concern of the community.
What is the sex work context in your country/region?
The Kenyan Penal Code and the Sexual Offences Act do not criminalise sex work per say. These codes criminalise the actions of third parties associated with sex work, rather than focusing on sex workers themselves. Municipal by-laws across the country do directly criminalise sex work through articles outlawing “loitering for the purpose of prostitution,” “importuning” for the purpose of prostitution and “indecent exposure.” The police use the Penal Code provisions to harass and arbitrarily arrest sex workers. The police also violate the rights of the sex workers with impunity.
There is a lot of power abuse that police and county askaris’ use these laws to arrest sex workers, obstruct their work, harass them, or even beat them up.
What are the priority areas that your organisation works in?
Queer sex workers initiative for refugees is committed to various development interventions and strives to work effectively on the below areas.
- Key population (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Intersex, Queer, MSM, Gender non conforming, PWIDs)
- Emergency shelter and safe housing for the most at-risk sex workers.
- Safe and sustainable livelihoods
- Women empowerment and gender equality
- Advocacy, awareness and sensitisation.
Do you provide services to sex workers? What kind?
Yes, we provide services to sex workers and below are the services we provide.
HEALTH: we provide health and general peer education to queer sex workers on how to live healthy lives and disseminate accurate and reliable information about HIV/AIDs, STIs, positive living for HIV+ persons, general sexual health, gender-based violence, and mental health, in addition to counselling and treatment as specific situations arise.
LIVELIHOODS: we facilitate LGBTIQ sex workers’ involvement in livelihood activities through providing financial literacy training, hands on skills, job placements, table banking and loaning schemes and other safe income generating activities as a factor to achieve self-sufficiency among the LGBTQ sex worker community.
HUMAN RIGHTS: we advocate for LGBTIQ sex workers most especially refugees and asylum-seekers, ensuring their voices are included and human rights are respected in communities where our struggles intersect and offer paralegal and prison support for all affected by the laws of the land.
PROTECTION: we have an emergency shelter and communal safe housing facility to accommodate and provide basic support to vulnerable LGBTIQ sex workers who are victims or at risk of community violence.
Do you do political work, or campaigns? What kind?
We don't do political work.
How are sex workers meaningfully included in the organisation?
95 percent of decision makers in QSWIR are sex workers. All our programmes, goals and objectives are sex workers oriented.
Tell us about a big event or challenge you have worked on recently. For example, a campaign, a big event you worked on, etc. How did it go? What were the challenges?
We have been working on physical health services and psycho social support which includes weekly mental health awareness lessons, provision of COVID-19 relief items like masks, sanitisers, in-house counsellors and weekly counselling sessions, drug abuse awareness lessons, provision of Sexual and Reproductive Health services, provision of condoms, lubricants, pads and personals hygiene trainings. We also did a peaceful protest advocating for queer sex workers rights and it was a successful campaign.
What challenges does your organisation face in the future?
Queer Sex Workers Initiative for Refugees still face a number of health and human rights challenges including heightened risk for HIV infection and suboptimal care and treatment outcomes, institutional and interpersonal violence, labour rights violations, and financial insecurity.
Does the organisation have a message for the sex worker rights movement?
Our message is that sex work is work and our bodies are our business.