Launch of handbook for European sex workers - UK press briefing

3 June 1999

PRESS INVITATION

Journalists are invited to the launch press briefing of Hustling for Health, a new handbook which promotes health and safety in the sex industry, on Monday 14 June at Imperial College School of Medicine, St Marys campus, Paddington, London.

Drawing directly from the experience of sex workers, Hustling for Health is a practical guide which promotes health and safety in the sex industry through better access to good services. The guide was produced by a network of projects in health care, social services and the sex industry in 16 European countries, and has been supported by the European Commission, DG V - Europe Against AIDS, since 1993.

It describes innovative programmes of peer education, outreach, and health promotion schemes for different groups of sex workers, clients and managers in the sex industry.

The handbook also contains examples of successful interventions from all over Europe showing how to reduce the risks of infection, violence and addiction, and how to deal with issues related to migration, discrimination and civil rights.

For example, people from outside the sex industry often think of diseases like AIDS when they think of sex work. But disease, while serious, is not the only risk. Assault, abuse and violent death are all too common and, because sex workers are often turned into criminals by existing laws, they have few opportunities to defend themselves or to seek justice. Hustling for Health puts forward a strong case that the social recognition of sex work and the removal of repressive laws are key to improving health.

Outline programme:

On Monday 14 June at: the Committee Room, Imperial College School of Medicine, St Marys campus, Norfolk Place, London W2. Nearest tube station: Paddington.

10.30 am - Welcome and introduction by Dr Helen Ward, Senior Clinical Lecturer in Public Health Medicine, Imperial College School of Medicine and Coordinator of the European Network for HIV/STD Prevention in Prostitution

Speakers: Maya Czajka, sex worker activist, manager of MADONNA Project, Bochum, Germany
Pamela Gillies, Professor of Public Health, University of Nottingham, UK
Veronica Munk, representative of the TAMPEP International Foundation

11.00 am - Interviews - To Be Confirmed: A UK sex worker will also be available for interviews.

Coffee will be available from 10.00am.
Please confirm your attendance with the Imperial College press office.

Notes to editors:

1. The Hustling for Health press briefing will take place at 10.30am on Monday 14 June 1999 in the Committee Room, Imperial College School of Medicine, St Marys campus, Paddington, London W2. The medical school building is in Norfolk Place, just off Praed Street.

Nearest tube station: Paddington (on the Bakerloo, Circle, District and Hammersmith & City lines).

2. For more information please contact:
Tom Miller, Imperial College Press Office
Tel: 0171 594 6704 Fax: 0171 594 6700
E-mail: t.miller@imperial.ac.uk

3. The European Network for HIV/STD Prevention in Prostitution has been supported by the European Commission, DG V - Europe Against AIDS, since 1993. The participants represent projects in 16 European countries, including sex worker self help groups, clinical and health promotion services and social support programmes. It is formed from two closely collaborating networks, EUROPAP and TAMPEP.

EUROPAP stands for European Intervention projects: AIDS prevention for prostitutes. It aims to support and develop interventions to reduce HIV, STD and other communicable diseases in prostitution and to assess theo assess theo assess the most successful and appropriate approaches for sex workers.

TAMPEP is a project which started in 1993 and spansfour European countries: the Netherlands, Italy, Germany and Austria. It is a model of intervention, reaching more than 20 different nationalities of women and transgender people from Central and Eastern Europe, South East Asia, Africa and Latin America and seeks to increase empowerment and self-esteem among migrant sex workers.

4. Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine has the largest income (£309m) and the largest research income (£117m) of any university institution in the UK. It has 8823 full time students, 30 per cent of whom are postgraduate and 35 per cent non-British nationalities. Imperial College was rated second overall in both The Times Good University Guide (23 April 1999) and the Financial Times Guide to Britains top 100 universities (1 April).

Imperial College School of Medicine was formed in 1995 when Imperial College and its existing medical school, St Mary's Hospital Medical School were joined by the National Heart and Lung Institute. It further expanded when the Charing Cross and Westminster Medical School and the Royal Postgraduate Medical School joined in August 1997.