DIGNITY CAMPAIGN

The aim of the Dignity Campaign is to advance vocational training and microcredit initiatives that will empower commercial sex workers and impoverished women with marketable skills, allowing them to work themselves out of poverty.

PHASE ONE: Vulnerable Ethiopian Women's Empowerment Program (VEWEP)

In response to the day-to-day struggles of Elsa and other young women trapped in sex work, the Vulnerable Ethiopian Women's Empowerment Program (VEWEP) was designed. VEWEP is a skill training initiative aimed at empowering women with market-able skills, such as sewing and tailoring, in order to provide them with a viable alternative to sex work.

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One Woman's Story
(Click on above image to watch)

At 8:00 PM Elsa, a young woman in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia will prepare her daughter for bed as she prepares herself for work. Although she works an average of 10 hours per night, she will only earn around $2.50-$3.50 a night (barely enough to provide more than one meal a day).

As she looks in the mirror, she prepares herself mentally for what the night might bring: physical and sexual assault, theft, and the anguish of leaving her young daughter home alone. Five years ago, when her father died, she would never have guessed that she would have to drop out of the seventh grade. At just 17 years old, she would never have imagined that she would have to resort to selling her body to support herself and her two younger sisters.

(Click on the image above to watch Elsa's story.)