EMPOWERMENT OF ADOLESCENT GIRLS AND YOUNG WOMEN TO ESCAPE FROM THE COMMERCIAL SEX INDUSTRY
HANOI / VIETNAM
The circumstances of female sex workers in Vietnam is very challenging. Exploitation, oppression, violence, drug abuse and addiction, and even homicide are among the typical threats they face. This situation is further complicated by the fact that they have limited access to government services.
The Empowerment of Adolescent Girls and Young Women to Escape from the Commercial Sex Industry (Hanoi, Vietnam) was a three-year pilot project implemented by Plan International (Vietnam), in partnership with the government and local non-governmental organizations (NGOs). The project piloted a community-based social and economic reintegration model for 400 adolescent girls and young women aged 17 to 35 years involved in the sex industry. The project strategy comprised a package of linked services that had been designed to create an enabling environment for sex workers to improve their access to state and non-state sexual health care, legal assistance, psycho-social support, vocational training, job placement services, and self-employment support. Through the service providers (NGOs), the sex workers were economically empowered with market-oriented vocational and entrepreneurship skills and received job placements and loans for job creation support. In addition, they were trained as peer counselors to reach out to other sex workers and assist them in also escaping the sex industry.
In total, 409 women between the ages of 17 and 35 were reached by the project. Of these, 82 benefited from the vocational training program, and 36 received small grants and loans to implement their business plans. The impact evaluation concluded that the project’s model achieved its objective of supporting the efficient delivery of effective assistance to the sex workers. It further revealed that it was significantly more effective with older sex workers who were more easily persuaded to change their lifestyles.
Despite the short implementation period, the project provided significant support in the development of Vietnam’s national sex work policy. Plan International has developed an effective working relationship with the Department of Social Vice Prevention (DSVP) and is providing assistance to the institution in its policy development and planning in the area of sex work. Further, the project engaged DSVP, the primary sex work policy actors in the country, as central partners right from the early stages of project inception and implementation. The project model has been presented nationally. With the shift from center to community-based activities, the model provides new and innovative approaches in involving sex workers as active participants in the projects and in establishing government and NGO partnerships.
Client: Plan International.