Our Work

Amplified Voices amplifies the voices of sex worker-led organisations advocating for rights-based services, freedom from abuse and discrimination, freedom from punitive laws, policies and practices, and self-determination for sex workers. Amplified Voices works primarily with sex worker-led local networks and facilitates sex worker-led capacity building.

Amplified Voices’ work is informed by the Consensus Statement on Sex Work, Human Rights, and the Law.

Amplified Voices advocates for and facilitates sex worker representation in national policy forums, and ensures that sex worker-led organisations have opportunities to contribute to the development of national normative guidance.

Amplified Voices is the lead agency in bringing together the local and national sex worker-led networks in developing and implementing capacity building programmes.

Objective

The key object of the objective is to unite sex worker groups in their effort to fight for human rights for sex workers. We work with male, female and transgender sex workers, their clients and third parties, while we also target decision-makers and build capacity of individual sex workers' rights activists to be vocal about issues in their communities.

Focus Areas

A

Oppose the criminalisation and other legal oppression of sex work and support its recognition as work

B

Critique the trafficking paradigm that conflates representations of sex work, migration, and mobility

C

Advocate for universal access to health services, including primary health care, HIV and sexual and reproductive health services

D

Speak out about violence against sex workers, including violence from police, institutions, clients, and intimate partners, while challenging the myth that sex work is inherently gender-based violence

E

Oppose human rights abuses, including coercive programming, mandatory testing, raids and forced rehabilitation

F

Challenge stigma and discrimination against sex workers, their families and partners, and others involved in sex work

G

Advocate for the economic empowerment and social inclusion of sex workers as sex workers

We Work To Promote

Human and labour rights of all sex workers

Health, sexual and reproductive health and rights of all sex workers

Documenting, exposing and reducing violence against sex workers

Increasing and securing the access and availability of high-quality services for sex workers in South Africa

Strengthening the leadership and involvement of sex workers and their groups in decision making processes on national and local levels

Where We Work

AVo works in the Western province of South Africa. Most of the projects Avo is implementing is focused in the City slums in and around Cape Town. AVo has projects in Dunoon, Khayelisha, Langa, Berville and other towns and cities across the Western Cape.

Recent Projects

Amplified Voices (AVo) is involved in several community engagement initiatives. In a Breaking the Cycle Project in Gugulethu, AVo is fighting for a reduction of the risks associated with drug use amongst sexual minorities, LGBT youth, sex workers of all sexual orientation and transgender people.

AVo is advocating for universal access to health services, including primary health care, HIV and sexual and reproductive health services for Young Female Sex Workers (YFSW) and adolescent girls. Breaking the Cycle creates Community-based Advocates (CbA) who work in communities and schools to speak out and challenge violence against sex workers. The CbA are engaging police, institutions, clients, and intimate partners in sex workers’ rights and freedoms education.

AVo is engaging communities through the Condom Always (CoA) Project. With Condom Always, AVo is integrating innovation to form and support grassroots sex workers groups. Sex Workers groups are empowered by CoA through training, linking and learning support and rights education to create awareness of the risks linked to drug use and HIV/AIDS, of violations of human rights and of discrimination in their communities. CoA approach is reduction negative consequences linked to drug use, HIV/AIDS infections and hepatitis infections and the psychological and social problems linked to drug use.

In Dunoon, AVo is engaging communities by implementing a Hands-Off Project. In Hands-Off, AVo is promoting the rights and overall well-being of Sex Workers. Hands-Off is challenging all forms of discrimination and stigma against Sex Workers in their diversity including non-identifying women in transactional relationships who include, slay queens, sugar babies, escorts, call girls, mistresses, as well as Lesbian, Bisexual and Queer Sex Workers. Hands-Off is lobbying for laws, policies and practices that defend the human rights of sex workers in all their diversity.

Hands-Off Project is coordinating Self-help Groups (ShG) for Young Female Sex Workers (YFSW), non-identifying sex workers, single parenting counsellors and PrEP champions. The ShGs are building their capacities to prevent and protect themselves from sexual, emotional, financial or structural violence perpetrated by intimate partners, acquaintances, strangers or institutions.

AVo is strengthening GBV prevention and response with Hands-Off project. Hands-Off is engaging communities to explore mechanisms that include male engagement in the fight to end violence against women and girls. AVo prevention initiatives look at how Sexual Gender Based Violence (SGBV) can be prevented from happening.

Response services are helping survivors of violence in a variety of ways. AVo SGBV Prevention initiatives look at how SGBV can be prevented from happening focusing on: Intimate partner violence (IPV), Sexual violence (Sexual assault, Sexual exploitation), Sexual Harassment (public spaces, work place) Cyber Bullying and Revenge Porn.

Amplified Voices is reporting on the impact of COVID-19 on sex workers in Cape Town. We are documenting and reporting to international policy makers about human rights violations, and putting pressure on national policy makers to ensure that needs of sex workers are not ignored in this pandemic. We are also sharing stories of solidarity and strength within the sex worker community.

The COVID-19 pandemic, as with other health crises, exposes existing inequalities and disproportionately affects people already criminalized, marginalized and living in financially precarious situations, often outside social protection mechanisms.

As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, sex workers all over the world are experiencing hardship, a total loss of income and increased discrimination and harassment. The criminalization of various aspects of sex work serves to magnify the already precarious situation of sex workers in the informal economy. As sex workers and their clients self-isolate, sex workers are left unprotected, increasingly vulnerable and unable to provide for themselves and their families.

Sex worker-led organizations reported a lack of access to national social protection schemes and exclusion from emergency social protection measures being put in place for other workers, particularly where sex work is criminalized. Whenever and wherever possible, sex workers are responsibly self-isolating in response to government’ calls. However, when they were excluded from COVID-19 social protection responses, sex workers were faced with putting their safety, their health and their lives at increased risk just to survive.

Amplified Voices is furthermore concerned at reports of punitive crackdowns against sex workers, resulting in the raiding of homes, compulsory COVID-19 testing, arrest and threatened deportation of migrant sex workers.

Amplified Voices called on government to take immediate, critical action, grounded in human rights principles, to protect the health and rights of sex workers. Measures should include:

  • Access to national social protection schemes for sex workers, including income support schemes.
  • An immediate firewall between health services and immigration authorities in order to ensure that migrant sex workers can access health services.
  • Emergency financial support for sex workers facing destitution, particularly migrants who are unable to access residency-based financial support.
  • An immediate end to evictions and access to appropriate emergency housing for homeless sex workers.
  • Stopping raids on sex workers’ homes and sex work premises and ensuring that all measures to protect public health are proportionate.
  • An immediate halt to arrests and prosecutions for sex work-related activity, moving away from punitive measures and criminalization towards reaching and serving those most in need.
  • An immediate end to the use of criminal law to enforce COVID-19-related restrictions, including forced COVID-19 testing and related prosecutions.
  • The engagement of sex worker communities in responses the meaningful involvement of sex worker-led organizations in emergency public health planning groups.

Interested in us?

Reach Out!

Amplified Voicesinfo@avo-sa.org