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In 2023, ESWA is holding a number of activities regarding access to health for sex workers. You can find an overview of our different activities and access our various calls here.

Overview of the programme

Building on the success of the first Red Umbrella Academy which took place in 2020, ESWA is proud to announce the launch of the Red Umbrella Academy 2.0 with the support of Gilead Science.

The programme is divided into three different workstreams: 

• Capacity building: a 3-day training for 24 sex workers from 8 countries on HIV advocacy and HIV combination prevention tools including PrEP
• Research: a participatory research on access to and continuation of PrEP for sex workers
• Advocacy: a launch of the participatory research at national levels & participation in scientific conferences and community events

Presentation of the programme and activities

The programme aims to improve sex workers’ access to HIV services through various activities:

• Participation in the research on access to PrEP for sex workers 

Participants are fully engaged in the research process. This includes: 

• Participating in initial online meeting with other participants and researcher
• Reviewing questions for questionnaires and interviews
• Participating in interviews on access to PrEP
• Identifying key respondents
• Coordinating translation of the final research paper from English into national language
• Launching the research in your own country. Small grants will support trainees in implementing local advocacy activities to share the findings of the research report on access to PrEP with local stakeholders (HIV activists, healthcare providers, researchers, policy makers, funders...). In doing so, project participants will apply and adapt the knowledge they have acquired during the training to their local contexts.
  
  

• Participation in a 3 day training for 24 sex workers activists from 8 countries in English and Russian

The training will include sessions on HIV advocacy and access to HIV combination prevention tools including PrEP. It will also address specific challenges faced by different sex worker communities. Topics of the training might include: 

• Introduction to HIV: HIV life cycle, transmission, treatment options, history of HIV
• HIV combination prevention
• Access to Prep
• Realities of Sex Work in Europe
• Needs and barriers of different groups of sex workers with regard to access to HIV services
• Specific vulnerabilities: stigma and discrimination, criminalisation
• Sex work and mental health
• Workshop on collaboration possibilities between sex workers and HIV activists in different local contexts
• Inclusion of peer workers
• Specificities of MSM, trans and migrant  sex workers
• Current issues and community challenges such as chemsex

The training will take place from the 15th until the 17th of October 2022 in Warsaw, Poland in combination with the European Aids Conference (EACS).

Deliverables & Timeline

Budget

Selected organisations will have the opportunity to send three participants to the Red Umbrella Academy training (travel, accommodation and catering covered by ESWA) and will receive 2500 euros to conduct all the activities related to the participatory research (online meetings, reviews, interviews, translation, launch of the research).

Who can apply?

The programme is open to all organisations members of ESWA. 

Please check here to see if your organisation is a member of ESWA. You can apply to become a member here.

The programme will welcome 24 participants from 8 member organisations from 8 different countries so each organisation must select 3 participants to participate in the programme. 

To ensure diversity of legal frameworks and geographical diversity we encourage organisations from various countries and European subregions to apply.

Please make sure you can attend the entirety of the training (15-17 October 2023) and commit to all activities before applying.

Application process

Organisations must fill in this application form.

The deadline to apply is 21st of February (23:59 CET). 

Organisations will be contacted by the 28th of February to know whether they have been selected or not.

If you have any questions please email: [email protected]