Red Umbrella Sexual Health and Human Rights Association works with male, female and transgender sex workers.
Sex workers govern the organisation; all members of the board are sex workers and % 60 of the staff members are sex workers.
The first challenge is policies that criminalise sex workers and their clients. Even though the Turkish Penal Code does not mention that sex work is illegal, every attached activity around sex work is illegal in Turkey. Therefore sex work is criminalised in its different forms. Also, some other laws are used to harass or penalise sex workers.
A second challenge would be violence and impunity for perpetrators.
We carry out advocacy towards lawmakers and decisionmakers, capacity strengthening for sex workers, visibility and awareness raising events for public education, trainings for different types of stakeholders, etc.