Report of Male and gender-variant male sex workers meet

[Guest guest]

Dear Friends,

This is the summary of the two day proceedings of the Regional consultation

meeting on Male and gender-variant male sex workers, (March 1 and 2, 2003),

Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala. This is held as a satellite meeting of the 'Festival

of pleasure', by National network of sex workers, March 1 -3, 2003,

Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala.

Regional consultation meeting on male and gender-variant male sex workers:

More than 17 organizations from India and Nepal and Bangladesh participated in

this meeting.

The meeting was inaugurated on February 28th evening.

March 1, 2003:

The meeting started with the plenary session in which presentations on male sex

work were made. 'Male sex work in Chennai' was presented by Dr.Venkatesan

Chakrapani. Experiences of working with MSM from Manipur was presented by Mr.

Bankim changshibhum, SASO. Mr. Aditya bandopadhaya Indipendent consultant made

a presentation on rights-based approach to HIV/AIDS and issues of MSM and male

sex workers. MS. Maheswari Bhoopati from Madurai told about the organisition.

The plenary sesion was followed by questions/answers sessions and group

discussions in which needs and priority issues to be discussed (on the second

day)were identified.

March 2, 2003:

The second day started with participatory exercises like 'broken-square game'

and 'win as much as you can' game to understand the importance on team building

and networking. This was facilitated by Mr. Collin fitzgerald, an indipendent

consultant from Kolkata.

In the group discussions, issues like - definition of male sex work, specific

needs of male sex workers, etc. were discussed.

In the next session, based on the specific needs, recommendations were made to

different stakeholders.

In the final session, the short term action plan and the future of this informal

network of organizations working on MSM/male sex workers were discussed.

The meeting ended with vote of thanks from the organizing committee.

(Note: The proceedings of this meeting is being prepared and will soon be

available.)

Sincerely,

Agniva Lahiri

(On behalf of organizing committee)

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