People Who Made a Difference in 2010
WWAV’s Executive Director, Deon Haywood, was recognized in TheBody.com 2010 HIV/AIDS Community Spotlight:
“One of the main takeaways from Transforming the National AIDS Response: Advancing Women’s Leadership and Participation was that there is amazing work being led by women, yet so many of these women go unrecognized. Deon Haywood is one of those women.
“Haywood runs Women With a Vision, Inc., (WWAV) in New Orleans, La. WWAV was co-founded by Haywood’s mother and several other black women in 1991 as a social service organization “to promote wellness and disease prevention for women and their families living at or below the poverty line.” It was created as a response to the non-existence of HIV prevention resources for women who were the most at risk: poor women, sex workers, women with substance abuse issues and transgender women…”
UN Spotlight on Sex Worker’s Rights
In 2010, the Best Practices Policy Project joined with the Desiree Alliance to research and describe the state of sex workers’ rights in the United States to be included as one of only five US presentations to be part of the Sexual Rights Initiative reporting back to the UN High Commissioner on Human Rights Universal Periodic Review.
This report found that sex workers in the United States, especially those from communities of color and low-income LGBT communities, are subject to police harassment, extortion and false arrest. Policing also undermines sex workers ability to protect their sexual health because condoms and other safe sex equipment are used as evidence against them. In some parts of the United States people detained for violating anti-prostitution laws are subjected to mandatory testing and face much more serious penalities if they are found to be HIV positive.
A significant rights violation is the placement of sex workers in some jurisdictions like New Orleans on “sex offender registry” lists that limits where they can live, work, and more. We at Women With A Vision are proud to be part of this important policy campaign.
HRC 2010: Bringing It Together in the Big Easy
November 21, 2010 by WWAV
Filed under Empowerment, Featured
At the 8th Annual Harm Reduction Conference November 18-21, Women With A Vision helped to lead the focus on the criminalization of sex worker’s lives and communities. From our morning plenary session to our closing day workshop, all of us at Women With A Vision were excited to connect and strategize with our allies in the national and global harm reduction movement!
Desiree Alliance Conference
August 26, 2010 by WWAV
Filed under Empowerment, Featured
Executive Director, Deon Haywood, has worked non-stop to further the mission of WWAV taking it to new heights and locations! She delivered the Keynote address at the Desiree Alliance 2010 National Sex Worker Conference “Working Sex: Power, Practice, and Politics” in Las Vegas, Nevada.
