EMPOWER Foundation

Description

EMPOWER Foundation is a Thai non-profit organization that has supported sex workers for more than 30 years. Its name stands for Education Means Protection Of Women Engaged in Recreation. It was founded in Patpong, Bangkok, in 1984 by Chantawipa Apisuk and a group of sex workers. More than 50,000 sex workers have taken part in its work over the decades.

The foundation runs a centre in Chiang Mai with a local community of around 3,000 sex workers, plus a museum in Nonthaburi and a network of members across many other Thai provinces. It offers free classes in language, health, law and pre-college education, together with individual counselling. It also lobbies the Thai government to extend ordinary labour protections to sex workers and to decriminalize sex work.

Its current work centres on three projects: the Can Do Bar, an education programme, and a legal club. Can Do Bar is a worker-owned bar in Chiang Mai run as a model of fair working conditions, including a weekly day off and social security for staff. EMPOWER takes a non-judgmental stance on sex work and holds that sex workers should not be pressured to leave the trade.