Sex work activist Duduzile Dlamini was awarded the first ever Prudence Mabele Award by the International Aids Society at the International Aids Conference in Amsterdam, Netherlands, last week.
Dlamini, 40, was honoured for embodying the values, spirit and activism of late HIV/Aids activist Prudence Mabele.
“We at SWEAT (Sex Workers Education and Advocacy Taskforce) and Sisonke (a movement that seeks to unite sex workers across South Africa to stand up for their rights) are very proud about the award. We will keep on pushing Mabele’s legacy in our work,” Dlamini said.
The International Aids Conference, which convened from July 23 to 27, is currently the largest conference on health issues in the world. It was established in 1985, the year when the HIV/Aids epidemic peaked. This year's conference was attended by the likes of revered SA international actress Charlize Theron and former US president Bill Clinton.
Dlamini from KwaZulu-Natal said she became a sex worker due to poverty at her home. She said she had to sell fish from the age of 10 to help feed her family and eventually became a sex worker by the age of 20. “As a woman who grew up in the apartheid times, I was uneducated and coming from a poor background. I wanted to give my children a better life because we had no support,” she said.
The mother of four said she eventually moved to Cape Town as a young woman hoping to find a better life, but her situation did not change. And after her partner died from shack fire his family chased her away and she had no means to feed her children or pay rent.
In 2008 she was approached to become a peer educator by SWEAT, a non-governmental organisation that works to ensure the rights of sex workers are defended and that they have access to decent healthcare and other services. Dlamini eventually became a Sisonke mobiliser and lobbyist for the decriminalisation of sex work. She is also the Mothers for the Future (M4F) co-ordinator, a network which gives support to sex workers that are also mothers. “I have to use my voice to fight for health equity and social justice in South Africa. I will continue to fight the patriarchal system that fails women and children in South Africa,” she said.
South African sex worker wows delegates at the International Aids Conference
Image: Muntu Vilakazi
Sex work activist Duduzile Dlamini was awarded the first ever Prudence Mabele Award by the International Aids Society at the International Aids Conference in Amsterdam, Netherlands, last week.
Dlamini, 40, was honoured for embodying the values, spirit and activism of late HIV/Aids activist Prudence Mabele.
“We at SWEAT (Sex Workers Education and Advocacy Taskforce) and Sisonke (a movement that seeks to unite sex workers across South Africa to stand up for their rights) are very proud about the award. We will keep on pushing Mabele’s legacy in our work,” Dlamini said.
The International Aids Conference, which convened from July 23 to 27, is currently the largest conference on health issues in the world. It was established in 1985, the year when the HIV/Aids epidemic peaked. This year's conference was attended by the likes of revered SA international actress Charlize Theron and former US president Bill Clinton.
Dlamini from KwaZulu-Natal said she became a sex worker due to poverty at her home. She said she had to sell fish from the age of 10 to help feed her family and eventually became a sex worker by the age of 20. “As a woman who grew up in the apartheid times, I was uneducated and coming from a poor background. I wanted to give my children a better life because we had no support,” she said.
The mother of four said she eventually moved to Cape Town as a young woman hoping to find a better life, but her situation did not change. And after her partner died from shack fire his family chased her away and she had no means to feed her children or pay rent.
In 2008 she was approached to become a peer educator by SWEAT, a non-governmental organisation that works to ensure the rights of sex workers are defended and that they have access to decent healthcare and other services. Dlamini eventually became a Sisonke mobiliser and lobbyist for the decriminalisation of sex work. She is also the Mothers for the Future (M4F) co-ordinator, a network which gives support to sex workers that are also mothers. “I have to use my voice to fight for health equity and social justice in South Africa. I will continue to fight the patriarchal system that fails women and children in South Africa,” she said.
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