In the 10 years since our launch in 2012, Red Umbrella Fund has given 279 grants to 180 organisations in 68 countries. Every year we share our list of grants including the names of the grantee-partner organisations that request to be published on our website. Organisations that wish to stay anonymous do not have their name or country publicly available. Please contact us if you would like to contact any of our former-grantees or discuss their work.
In 2022 Red Umbrella Fund’s PAC awarded €1,300,000 – our first time giving more than a million in a single year – bringing total grants to €7,886,500!
Action Humanitaire pour la Sante et le Developpement (AHUSADEC)
Democratic Republic of the Congo
Local
French
The Bukavu branch of AHUSADEC is a sex worker-led group that operates in Kivu province. It provides a safe space for sex workers where it offers health information and documents cases of violence which it brings to police and court. Through radio shows the group aims to promote its work and educate the public about human rights.
This sex worker-led African regional network was created in 2009 and is based in Nairobi, Kenya. The Africa Sex Worker Alliance (ASWA) has sex worker-led organisations as members in 35 African countries. The network amplifies the voices of their sex worker members and advocates for the health and human rights of the diverse community of sex workers working and living in Africa. ASWA intends to use its grant to continue its advocacy in the region and continue to strengthen itself as a network.
This regional network unites sex worker groups from 11 countries and seeks to expand its membership to include all countries on the African continent. It provides strategic advice, networking opportunities, capacity-building tools and financial support to local sex workers’ groups that work to improve their access to health services and labour rights. Its membership includes groups working with women, men and trans sex workers. ASWA represents sex workers’ interest in regional and international processes and platforms.
Created in 2009, this regional network unites 75 sex worker groups from 28 countries and aims to expand its membership to include all countries in Africa. It provides strategic advice, networking opportunities, capacity-building tools and financial support to local groups that work to improve sex workers’ access to health services and labour rights. Its membership includes sex workers of all genders. ASWA represents sex workers’ interest in regional and international processes and platforms.
Created in 2009, this regional network based in Kenya unites 100 sex worker groups from 33 countries in Africa and aims to expand its membership to include all countries of the continent. ASWA provides strategic advice, networking opportunities, capacity-building tools and financial support to local groups that work to improve sex workers’ access to health services and labour rights. Its membership includes sex workers of all genders. ASWA represents the interests of sex workers in regional and international debates and platforms.
This sex worker-led African regional network was created in 2009 and is based in Nairobi, Kenya. The Africa Sex Worker Alliance (ASWA) has more than 70 sex worker-led organisations as members in 33 African countries. The network amplifies the voices of their sex worker members and advocates for the health and human rights of the diverse community of sex workers working and living in Africa. ASWA intends to use its grant to create a capacity scan to be used in modelling future trainings for sex worker-led organisations in 5 African countries.
This association of sex workers mainly operates in Douala, Cameroon’s main industrial and harbor city. The group provides health and HIV information and services to sex workers of all genders. Aids Acodev reaches out to potential allies and the media to bring attention to the stigma, discrimination, and rights violations that sex workers face.
This group provides health and HIV services to sex workers of all genders. Alcondoms organises workshops for law enforcement, health care providers and others to promote respect for sex workers’ rights, and to address stigma and violence. The Red Umbrella Fund grant will enable the group to develop advocacy material such as a documentary about the experiences of sex workers in Cameroon.
Alcondoms was established in 2012 in response to the harmful legal and policy environment for sex workers in Cameroon. This sex worker-led group promotes the human and labour rights of sex workers and works to increase sex workers’ access to HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment, STI and tuberculosis screening, and counselling services. Alcondoms is located in the outskirts of Douala and directly serves the high concentration of sex workers in the area, which are often not reached by other local and national service providers.
And Soppeku (meaning “together for a change in behaviour”) is a ten-year-old sex worker organisation that aims to improve sex workers’ knowledge of their rights and achieve legal reform in Senegal to ensure that sex work is respected as work. And Soppeku provides leadership training for sex workers and engages in advocacy with parliamentarians and other politicians. The group is comprised of women sex workers who live and work in the suburbs of Dakar and in the regions of Thies, Kaolack and Sédhiou.
This is a new organisation which aims to mobilise and educate women sex workers in urban and rural areas of Benin, using peer learning and outreach to other sex workers as a key strategy. The organisation advocates for improved access to health care and for the decriminalisation of sex work.
This organisation is run by and for sex workers on the outskirts of Douala, Cameroon. Association New Way+ works to increase access to quality health care, including HIV services, for women sex workers. Working primarily at the local level, New Way+ works to mobilise sex workers to stand up against stigma and discrimination and provides information, condoms, HIV services, and referrals. The group coordinates home visits and nutitional support to people living with HIV.
Bar Hostess Empowerment & Support Programme (BHESP)
Kenya
Local, National
English
This Kenyan national sex worker-led organisation was created in 1998. BHESP runs three community-led clinics providing free and comprehensive health and legal services to sex workers. The group successfully reaches street sex workers who are considered particularly vulnerable. This organisation identifies county laws oppressing sex workers across Kenya and repeals them through legal actions, demonstrations, media campaigns and petitions. BHESP works closely with other sex worker groups in the country and region.
Bar Hostess Empowerment & Support Programme (BHESP)
Kenya
Local
English
BHESP was created in 1998 and runs 3 clinics in Nairobi providing health and legal services to Kenyan women sex workers. In 2020, the organisation had reached more than 20,000 individuals. To reach its aim of providing quality services to sex workers, BHESP works with over 180 sex worker peer educators. BHESP was instrumental in the creation of the Kenya Sex Workers Alliance.
Coalition Afrique de l’Ouest et du Centre pour le travail du sexe (CAFOC-TS)
Regional Network - Senegal Based
International
French
Formed in 2015, this network of 21 sex worker-led organisations in 14 countries in West and Central Africa focuses on building the leadership of sex workers in Francophone Africa. CAFOC-TS works to harmonise sex workers’ rights advocacy in the region and to document and share the successes of its members. The network collaborates with the African Sex Workers Alliance (ASWA) and Global Network of Sex Work Projects (NSWP) to better address the specific needs of Francophone sex workers.
This young community network advocates for the rights of male sex workers in Malawi, who face a double stigma related to homosexuality and sex work. It conducts outreach throughout the country to expand its reach. CHeRA is building a network of friendly health-care providers by training health workers in five districts of Malawi on the health needs and rights of sex workers.
This group works to protect the rights and interests of sex workers through outreach and capacity building of sex workers of all genders in the capital city Lusaka and surroundings. Three out of four members of the group are HIV positive and one of the priority areas of the group is access to HIV prevention and treatment services for sex workers. The group also trains health care workers and police on the needs and rights of sex workers.
Feminist Action Development Ambition (FADA) was founded in 2015 by Sex Workers and Lesbian, Bisexual, Trans and Queer individuals to serve their communities in Rwanda facing discrimination and Human Rights abuses. With this grant from Red Umbrella Fund, the organisation will continue its advocacy and celebrate International Sex Workers’ Day and World AIDS Day among others.
Hommes pour les Droits et la Santé Sexuelle (HODSAS)
Democratic Republic of the Congo
National
French
HODSAS is an organisation for sex workers operating in the Democratic Republic of Congo. HODSAS supports its members in managing their health. With this grant, HODSAS will organise trainings on sexual health and rights, distribute sanitary pads and organise radio shows on sexual health and rights and family planning in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
This national network of sex workers works with and connects 35 sex worker-led organisations in Kenya to improve their skills and knowledge on topics such as organisational development, fundraising and human rights policy advocacy. KESWA organises campaigns to influence law and policy makers at national level to decriminalise sex work and improve living and working conditions for sex workers and end the high levels of violence against sex workers.
This national network unites and represents sex worker-led organisations in all 47 counties of Kenya. KESWA organises media boot camps and builds leadership skills of its members. The network trains sex workers as paralegals and human rights defenders to improve sex workers’ access to justice. KESWA is working towards a strategic litigation case to decriminalize sex work in the country and is developing a security plan to address violence against sex workers.
This group of women sex workers was formed in 2014 to advocate for the health and human rights of sex workers. Malawi Sex Workers Alliance (MASWA) reaches out to law and policy makers and enforcers to improve the way sex workers are perceived and treated in the country. The group documents human rights violations, provides training on human rights to sex workers, and supports sex workers to access justice.
Created 2008, this sex worker-led organisation in Kisumu, a port city on Lake Victoria, advocates for the rights of communities with multiple stigmatised identities (e.g., sex worker, LGBTQI+, and/or living with HIV). MAAYGO’s mission is to provide men sex workers and men having sex with men, especially those living with HIV, with access to quality health services. The group runs a safe space where young LGBTQI+ can meet, exchange experiences, access free condoms, receive HIV counselling and simply be themselves.
Led by sex workers who are women, this recently established organisation advocates for improved access to health care, particularly in relation to sexual and reproductive health. MOVE has a focus on combating violence, and engages political and religious leaders to educate them about the experiences of sex workers.
This national network of sex workers in Nigeria provides trainings to build the capacity of its 24 member organisations. This group particularly works on reducing violence from the police by educating sex workers on how to document abuse when they face it and by organising workshops with police officers on respect for human rights. NSWA provides trainings to sex workers to build self-esteem and public-speaking skills so that sex workers can speak out more effectively in national and international forums.
Nigeria Sex Workers Association advocates for sex workers’ rights through awareness raising, capacity strengthening, organisational development and advocacy. As a national sex worker network, the organisation unites 35 sex worker-led groups working with sex workers of all genders in all the 36 states of Nigeria.
Ohotu Diamond Women Initiative (Ohotu former WOPI)
Nigeria
Local, Subnational, National
English
This sex worker-led organisation in Lagos advocates for the human and labour rights of sex workers of all genders, sexual identities and backgrounds. The group trains sex workers on human rights and builds partnerships with local authorities to prevent and address violence against sex workers. ODWI plans to use the grant to run a media campaign to address stigma against sex workers and set up a crisis centre to respond to human rights abuses and support sex workers who have experienced violence.
Ohotu Diamond Women Initiative (Ohotu formerly WOPI)
Nigeria
Local, Subnational, National
English
WOPI is the only visible, self-led group of sex workers in Nigeria. The organisation supports female sex workers mobilizing for their rights in the capital Lagos and organizes rallies and media campaigns for decriminalisation. They have been expanding their activities to other parts of the country and are increasing their influence at national level where they advocate for longer-term improvement of sex workers’ living and working condition and the recognition of their human rights.
This group of sex workers is active in Port Louis, Mauritius. The group unites sex workers of diverse ethnic background and includes those living with HIV and those that use drugs. Parapli Rouz conducts outreach with sex workers on HIV prevention, and mobilises them to challenge stigma and police violence.