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Interview with María Elena Dávila, President of the Association of Nicaraguan Sex Workers "Sunflowers"
By Karla Jacobs, December 9th, 2009
María Elena Dávila is one of the leaders of the struggle to defend sex worker rights in Nicaragua. In November the affiliates of the Nicaraguan Sex Workers Network (REDTRASEX) signed a collaboration agreement with the Human Rights Ombudsman. This agreement is the first of its kind in the American continent.
In this interview Dávila talks about the discrimination sex workers are subjected to on a daily basis, the recent and blossoming process of sex worker organization in the country and the recently signed collaboration agreement.
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Karla Jacobs: Before talking about the organization that you preside, I'd like to talk a little about the day to day reality of sex work in Nicaragua. What are the main risks sex workers face on a daily basis?
María Elena Dávila: The main risk that we face is the lack of security. Most sex workers work on the streets, the rest work in nightclubs. We are subjected to discrimination and violence from clients, from the owners of the nightclubs as well as from ordinary people, our neighbours, people that know us. Sometimes you are physically attacked, or you are abused verbally.
And it is not only the sex worker that is subjected to this sort of discrimination but also her kids and the rest of her family. So our families suffer the consequences of our work.
Another risk we face is the inadequate attention we receive from public institutions like the police or at health centers and hospitals - places we go for protection and support.
We are victims of police discrimination and violence
KJ: Would you say that it is common, that it is normal, for police officers to discriminate against sex workers?
MED: We live in a society where women are stigmatized just for being women. And if you're a sex worker then it's much worse. People always blame you if anything bad happens to you. If a client does something to you, if he hit you or made you do something you didn't want to do, no one wants to listen. They'll say that you provoked him, or that you wanted to steal from him.
So when you go to the police station to make a complaint about what happened they stigmatize you terribly. They don't want to know. They criticize you. They don't value you as a human being with legally established rights.
This is a problem that sex workers face across the country. In Matagalpa the police don't let the girls wait for clients in the park. They force them to leave. The girls in Matagalpa have suffered a lot of violence from the police.
Another risk is the refusal to use condoms
The other risk we face is not being able to protect ourselves against STDs. Sometimes clients refuse to use condoms, and sometimes sex workers can't afford to buy condoms. This is an issue that our organization has focused a lot of effort on.
KJ: Do you think that the majority of sex workers don't use condoms? Or perhaps the question should be - do you think the majority of clients refuse to use condoms?
MED: In the past the problem of clients refusing to use condoms was more common, but today progress has been made. We know that the situation has improved because, according to studies that have been carried out in Nicaragua, in 2003 4% of sex workers were HIV positive. Today that figure has fallen to 2%.
That shows us that, as a result of the workshops and information programs offered by different organizations that focus on the issue of protection against STDs, the proportion of sex workers that don't use condoms has fallen. I would say that we have been able to normalize the concept that, sex work should never be carried out without a condom.
KJ: In Nicaragua prostitution it is not a crime, but there is the other issue of child prostitution. What position does your organization have on the phenomenon of child prostitution which, according to different studies, is on the rise in Nicaragua?
MED: Sex work and child prostitution are two very different things. It is legal to pay for sex with a women over 18. But paying for sex with a younger adolescent or a child is a very serious crime. When we talk about sex workers we are talking about women of 18 or older. We consider them as adults who are working as sex workers because they have made the decision to do so. An adult makes informed decisions while a child or a young adolescent does what she is told to do or what she is obliged to do.
They are two very different things. And of course we are opposed to child prostitution. If we suspect under agers are working in the nightclubs we visit we take immediate action. We go to the police. The owners of the nightclubs know that is how we react to under agers.
KJ: And the owners accept you visiting the clubs?
MED: Yes, they accept us. We haven't had any problems in that regard.
It wasn't long ago we opened our eyes to the fact that we have rights
KJ: I'd like to talk about the sex workers organizations that exist in Nicaragua. I understand that the organizational process is something that began only a few years ago. What was the impetus to beign organizing?
MED: There are five organizations that have been supporting sex workers in Nicaragua during the last few years - the Xilonem Association in Esteli, the Women's Collective in Matagalpa, the Women's Center in Masaya, the Meri Barreda Organization in León and the Latin American and Caribbean Sex Workers Network (REDTRASEX) which is based in Argentina and to which different sex workers organizations across the region are affiliated.
In 2006 REDTRASEX informed Xilonem about an international sex workers encounter that they were going to carry out in El Salvador. They needed three different sex workers from Nicaragua to attend the encounter. I was one of the ones who attended.
It was a really important experience for us. The first thing they taught us was to start to identify ourselves as women. It was in El Salvador that we started to open our eyes to the fact that we have rights. It became clear that we were submissively accepting what society says about us. We realized that we had to start to organize ourselves and fight for our rights.
After the encounter in El Salvador there were others in Guatemala and Argentina. REDTRASEX's main office in Argentina helped us with funding applications and we were awarded a small amount of money from the UN Population Fund (UNFPA).
We used that money to organize a regional encounter here in Estelí and formalize our attempts to form a sex workers organization in this part of Nicaragua. The encounter took place in a nightclub because the majority of sex workers can't go out.
KJ: Why can't they go out?
MED: Because they work with contracts that only allow one day free a week - Monday. We are able to go and visit them there and have meetings but they can't leave the club because of their contracts - we would cause them problems with their boss.
That meeting took place on November 27th 2007. We called the organization the Association of Nicaraguan Sex Workers "Sunflowers."
A couple of months later, with the help of the Meri Barreda Organization in León, we organized a national sex workers encounter, where more sex workers affiliated themselves to our organization.
At the start, although we had formed the organization, we weren't able to represent ourselves well in any formal environments - with the press, or with public institutions - because, in order to participate in those spaces you need to be prepared, you need to know certain things, you need to know what you're going to talk about.
It has been during this last year that we have been making ourselves known
During this last year, in representation of the Nicaraguan sex workers organizations, I traveled to Argentina where they have been preparing an application for funding with the World Fund [an international organization that funds projects to fight against AIDS and Malaria]. They were applying for funding to carry out a project with sex workers across Latin America and the Caribbean.
It was difficult because first we had to be awarded a letter from the In-Country Coordination Commission here in Nicaragua - a commission made up of representatives of different institutions and organizations including the Health Ministry. All the projects looking for funding with the World Fund have to be approved by the commission in their respective country.
So I went to do a presentation about the proposed project. It was tough but the commission approved the project.
It was during the meeting with the Coordination Commission that I made contact with other organizations including the Human Rights Ombudsman Office.
Also during the last year UNFPA gave us US$10,000 for a human rights awareness project with sex workers. As part of the project we carried out five workshops and two national encounters all focused on human rights. These encounters were invaluable in that they helped us to strengthen the organization that we had already established. On top of that a number of journalists and representatives of different institutions attended including members of the National Police.
It has been during this last year that we began making ourselves known as an organization in Nicaragua.
KJ: I understand that your organization has 125 members. What does being a member imply?
MED: It basically means that you have a committment to the organization.
In Nicaragua sex workers have to work almost everyday because that is how they guarantee they can buy food for their kids. But workers that want to be part of the organization have to be dedicated enough, for example, to pay their own travel and other expenses if there is a meeting in Managua or another city.
It is not easy to make a sex worker see that, she has the right to be part of an organization like ours, but that in order to fulfil that right she has to make a sacrifice.
Whenever an organization wants to work with us or wants to get to know us we always emphasize the importance of funding being put towards the transport costs of our members.
These 125 members have received training on issues like human rights. They have helped organize different events and activities. They are people who have identified themselves with the cause.
Currently we are working on leadership training within the organization. So far we have ten leaders, three in Masaya, three in Matagalpa and the rest in Leon.
There is another sex workers organization in the Department of Matagalpa covering the municipalities of San Ramon, Mulukuku, Río Blanco. The organization is called "Swallows." Both organizations [Sunflowers and Swallows] belong to the Sex Workers Network (REDTRASEX).
We want to create a network of representatives across the country to provide support to sex workers wherever they find themselves. Because one of the complications we face is that most sex workers don't work in the area they actually live in. So what we want is to create a support network so that, wherever the workers are they have somewhere to go to look for support if something happens to them.
Our main demand is that our rights are respected
KJ: What are the main things your organization demands from the Nicaraguan State?
MED: Our main demand is that they acknowledge us as human beings, that they respect our rights just like they would the rights of any other Nicaraguan citizen.
We demand that they recognize the work we do is an occupation like any other occupation. Because in Nicaragua prostitution is not a crime. And anyway, we don't promote sex work. Sex workers are in this line of work as a result of their own spontaneous decision. If you are in this line of work and you want to be in this line of work then it's your right.
We also demand that the attention we receive from public institutions is the same as that given to any other citizen. Because, for example, if a sex worker goes to the health center because she's got a cold or a sore throat the first thing they say to her is "what do you do?" And when she tells them what she works in they say "lie down I want to check you over." And what they want to check is her vagina.
We aren't treated like normal people. We are treated like aliens. People don't realize that we have feelings. That we have hearts.
Our struggle is difficult because, by being involved in this process the amount of criticism you receive increases. But, we know that if we don't fight we'll never achieve what we have set out to achieve.
The collaboration agreement with the Human Rights Ombudsman
KJ: I would like to talk a bit about the collaboration agreement you recently signed with the Human Rights Ombudsman. What does it involve?
MED: Basically what the agreement involves is that representatives of the different sex workers organizations in Nicaragua will form part of the Ombudsman office's human rights training team. That is the team of human rights facilitators who carry out workshops with all the public sector workers including police officers.
For us it is a really important opportunity to be part of that team because it means that we can present ourselves to representatives of all the different public institutions as normal people with equal rights to representatives of all the different public institutions. Once the agreement is put into practice next year we will have the chance to work in the Center, North and Pacific parts of the country.
The agreement was drafted with the help of all our members and with legal advice from the Ombudsman's office. We also sent a copy of the draft to the main office of REDTRASEX in Argentina so they could make suggestions.
We had to act fast because Ombudsman Omar Cabeza's period in office came to an end on December 10th. In the end, with invaluable support from lots of different organizations, we came up with the final version which Omar and I signed on November 23rd in Leon. The signing of the agreement represented a massive victory for us.
KJ: Is it the first time that a sex workers organization collaborates directly with a public institution?
MED: It's the first time in Nicaraguan history.
In this country there are lots of organizations that support sex workers - they carry out workshops, they provide condoms - but they're not going to encourage you to protest for your rights.
For that reason we decided that the first thing we had to do as an organization was to try to create a positive identity for ourselves as human beings with equal rights to everybody else. How could we defend our rights if we didn't even know what they were?
KJ: Through REDTRASEX in Argentina are you aware of the number of countries in the region that have signed agreements similar to the one you recently signed with the Ombudsman?
MED: I think we are the first. In Nicaragua we have been able to move forward with giant steps compared to sex worker organizations in other countries that have existed for years.
Our plans for the future
Now we are looking to establish greater legal status for our organization. The Swedish Agency for International Development [ASDI] is helping us with that. And Omar Cabezas is helping us with our juridical personality.
Once we have a juridical personality we'd have so much more potential. There are lots of organizations that want to fund us but they can't unless we have greater legal status.
There are lots of things we need. We need an office, a computer, a phone. We don't have any of that. But more than anything what we need is financial support so we can continue involving more sex workers in meetings and workshops.
KJ: Am I right that you are thinking about carrying out a study about sex work in Nicaragua?
MED: Yes. We want to do a study because we don't know how many sex workers there in Nicaragua. There are other organizations that have done studies but they are a bit random - for example based on some kind of formula they'll just say there are so many in such a such a neighbourhood, so many in such a such a town.
We want to do our own study because twe know that the girls don't give that kind of information to other people. We know where they are, how they are and how to reach them.