Description
The online counselling project is intended for women working in sex business (hereinafter SB only) and for women who are about to join SB. The goal is to start up the online counselling and chat for women who are threatened by violence in connection with their work within SB. Based on the existing surveys, it has been found out that the cyberspace has certain advantage of anonymity, availability at any time, possibility of immediate advice and enables to the users get rid of embarrassment and/or fear. The women involved in SB appreciate that. Still, there are some limitations and a kind of violence or an offensive behaviour, which the women cannot face, may appear. This is what we want to change and offer to all women higher level of protection.
Summary of project results
The project was realized as more and more sex workers begin work on-line. Women move from working in clubs or private houses in private environments, and thus seek clients in chat rooms, and servers designated for familiarization. This trend is also followed in the other countries, such as Germany, the Netherlands, Finland, Norway and Italy; we had the opportunity to visit them as well. All these organizations have therefore introduced a new service for women in SB - online counselling and chats. As we follow the changes in SB, we have decided to set up and build an Internet consulting. The aim was to introduce new services for women of SB and expand the circle of women who will provide advice to (e.g. advice on the topic of violence against women). Furthermore, we want to reach out with our new services to women who so far hadn´t been using our services due to the anonymity. We got in contact even with women who never used our services, due to the fear of disclosure. So there came a spread of R-R service over women who work in areas where we do not have centres, where they cannot even meet our outreach workers team.Internet counseling is for the whole Czech Republic and can be also used by abroad clients.By the on-line counselling being anonymous, women may be quicker to ask for things that would ask much later in the counselling centers. A cyberspace eliminates fear and shame to ask for any topic. Online services save time, allow clients to work at a pace faster to overcome various barriers. By creating and launching the Internet chat and counseling became our advisory services complete and it has expanded the impact of counseling for these women throughout the Czech Republic and abroad. By all these activities we have fulfilled the objective of the project.
Summary of bilateral results