Women Liberation Movement – MLM

With the project ‘Intertwining knowledge and transforming wisdom’, the group will be able to participate in new discussions about prostitution, to train participants within the organization, to exchange experiences, to disseminate the actions developed by MLM in centers which work with women at risk, to strengthen the conception and principles that guide the organization of Afro-descendant women and to establish partnerships and seek technical and pedagogical support with other organizations.

The idea is to give visibility to the reality experienced by women in prostitution, especially the Afro-descendants. These women have historically been playing an important role in their communities in the fight for housing, sustainability of their families, access to school, better working conditions, against violence and for Health. However, they have not accessed the public policies which would ensure their rights.

By promoting the encounter between Afro-descendant women from different communities and organizations, MLM plans to build collective strategies for coping with racism, sexism and other forms of exclusion, strengthening this group of society.

About 20 women will directly participate in the workshops and discussions proposed. This group can multiply the information received to at least 60 other people from their families and professionals nuclei.

MLM’s mission is to be present among Afro-descendant women in or at risk of prostitution and sexual exploited girls and women by promoting studies, workshops and debates about gender, race and prostitution issues.

The group has conducted quarterly workshops with women, addressing topics as collective health, prostitution, reproductive rights, sex and Afro-descendant feminism. During this work, notebooks with participants’ life stories have been produced, providing them with the perception of the importance for them to know and see one another as women and to respect each other as allies in the fight.

The group aims to lay the groundwork for the establishment of an Afro-descendent Women Network in Salvador. For this, it relies on the partnership with the following feminist and Afro-descendant movement organizations in Bahia: Marginalized Women's Pastoral , Ajob, Bahia Street, Bed , DasPretas, Nzinga Capoeira, Woman's Mandinga, Ceafro, among others.