Words from
the Regional Director of ASWA
“We are here! We are here as brothers and
sisters, moms and dads, sons and daughters some of us even grandparents, but WE
ARE HERE!” These were the words I spoke at the opening of the 1st
African sex workers conference in Johannesburg 3 years ago and now I say them
again, “WE ARE HERE!”
"We
are the African Sex Worker Alliance, from South African to Kenya to Nigeria, we
are everywhere. Ready to be heard, seen and recognized."
ASWA
has been natured and mothered, she has crawled, and taken baby steps, fell
along the way but now she is ready to walk, run, talk and chew food. ASWA is
now ready for a new dawn. ASWA’s main objective is to bring social justice to a
community that has long been deprived of a face, a voice and status. ASWA seeks
to fight oppression and other social injustices that have been inflicted upon
the sex workers of this continent. We are determined to fight patriarchy and
racism, class inequity and neo-colonialism that have encompassed our societies
from generation to generation.
I
am looking forward to a wonderful, fulfilling experience at ASWA. My dream is
to take ASWA to a level that is unimaginable, explore a platform and arena
where sex workers issues are tabled and discussed without frowned faces and
prejudices. My dream is to have an African sex workers movement that is recognized
a world leader and agent of change and has the power to influence through
collective action and responsibility. I
endeavour to build a Pan-African Sex Worker leadership team that is guided by
feminist principles.
Daughtie Ogutu
Regional Coordinator
African Sex Workers Alliance Nov 2012.
