Sex work continues to be socially and politically stigmatised, which often leads to people having misinformed perceptions of sex workers. “Many people have this dual image of sex workers where on the one hand, they are seen as money-grabbing, gold-digging nymphomaniacs, while on the other hand, they must be victims of abuse, human trafficking or coercion,” says Ho. 

This binary thinking of sex workers that permeates society is damaging of the truth, she adds, as it obscures the humanness in those it is describing. “The reality is almost always in the middle, somewhere between the two extremes,” says Ho.

“If you think they’re gold diggers, then you do not understand the real-life experiences that they have had. Some are doing this to give their children the best education that they can afford. One woman we work with is illiterate, but she’s managed to put her children through university thanks to the money she’s earned.” 

“Similarly, if we think of sex workers as purely victims of exploitation, we’re denying the fact that a lot of them have tried ways to escape, get out of the system and so on. Such a one-dimensional perspective denies their personal agency. It’s instead more important for us to think about issues as being on a spectrum and seeing sex workers simply as human beings.”

See also: How To Achieve Both Profit And Purpose In Your Career, According To Social Entrepreneur Daniel Layug

Ho describes how sex work is also often generalised as being undesirable, even if sex workers themselves don’t think so. She recalls a conversation with several others about ways to recognise sex work as work, in order for sex workers to get access to governmental benefits such as the Covid-19 relief fund. Instead, the conversation steered towards the direction of helping sex workers transition out of the job. 

“I know they mean well, but I think this decision isn’t ours to make,” she says. “If a sex worker is feeling trapped and wants to get out of the industry, then yes, we should help them make the transition. If not, we are being judgemental and this, to me, is discrimination based on differences in values and outlook on life.”   

Due to Project X’s openness to working with a diverse community, Ho has come across many different stories from sex workers on why they do what they do. “For some of the sex workers, sex work is empowering. I’ve met a handful of women who were sexually abused as a children who said that sex work is their way of reclaiming their sexuality and asserting themselves. There are also others who do sex work as a skilled profession. As long as they’re not harming anyone, who are we to judge?” 

Singapore doesn’t completely outlaw prostitution and there are government-regulated brothels where sex workers can legally provide sexual services to customers, but it is illegal for sex workers to solicit customers in public places for the purpose of prostitution. Despite this, the lines remain blurred and sex workers are often uncertain of their rights and fearful of law enforcement. 

“Often, when a customer commits a crime against a sex worker, the latter would not dare to lodge a police report because they are unsure of what might happen to them if they do. They often feel helpless and some customers take advantage of them, knowing their disadvantaged positions.”

As a result, Ho and her team work closely with a team of pro bono lawyers to keep sex workers abreast of the country’s latest laws. “Educating sex workers on their legal rights is our first line of defence, because it will help them identify a crime when it’s committed against them and negotiate their way out of the situation with the customer involved.”

See also: 6 Inspiring Female Leaders You Need To Know

Due to the covert nature of the industry, Ho believes Project X is only reaching out to about 40 percent of the sex worker community in Singapore. The organisation relies on social media and word-of-mouth to raise awareness, but even then it doesn’t always have the trust of every sex worker. 

“I think the distrust stems from sex workers internalising the social stigma and laws that surround their work, so it isn’t easy for them to believe when an organisation says it wants to look out for their rights and needs,” says Ho. But she and her team bridge the trust gap by continuing the practice of walking around the red-light districts in Singapore to talk to sex workers and hear about their problems. After all, she believes listening is the most important skill a person in her role can have. 

“Not listening is one of the most disempowering things that you can do to somebody else,” she says. “For those who aspire to do non-profit work, always listen in order to understand why people are in a certain place in life, their thoughts and opinions, because people who are discriminated against or are in less privileged positions often have one thing in common—not having anyone think that they or their opinions matter.”

In the decade that Ho has helmed Project X, she has experienced several ups and downs. The most memorable process she says has been her transformation from “angry activist to a diplomatic one, to someone in between”—and how all this has affected her mental health. When she first started out at the organisation, Ho admits to embodying the qualities of a passionate, hot-headed activist, who would “write sarcastic and ‘explosive’ posts on Facebook whenever I saw injustice”. 

In turn, she received a lot of backlash for her actions and perspectives on the plight of sex workers. “I'm very familiar with cancel culture because I've been censored a thousand times and stonewalled by people, and I saw how the cause suffered the repercussions of my words. From the public to the government, people would say that we’re too fierce and avoid us. We had this reputation for quite a few years.”

Realising that her actions were to the detriment of Project X, she decided to take a different, nearly opposite approach in hopes of regaining public support. This, however, backfired as well, as Ho says the organisation came off as unauthentic, especially among its longtime supporters. “People got confused and we ran into trouble there as well, so we had to renavigate the tension to find a middle ground.” 

See also: How to Find a Mentor: 19 Expert Tips on How to Make Mentorship Work for You

In 2021, she hopes to find an equilibrium that works. “I’m trying to put myself in other people’s shoes more. It’s useful to be able to see a situation from different perspectives, but also we need to for the sustainability of Project X.” 

A conversation with a friend recently made her realise that authenticity and compassion in her line of work was more important than anything. “The fact is that Project X is fighting for a taboo cause and we have to accept that we’re going to be hated by some people. What’s important is we are authentic and stand by what we believe in. It’s about finding the balance between staying true to who we are and finding our place in society. We’re still finding this balance, but I think we’re getting there.”  

At the end of it all, Ho says that Project X’s cause is one for gender equality. “I’m of the position that if sex workers can’t feel safe in our society, then no women can feel safe because the issues that sex workers face often expose the deepest loopholes in our system.”

See more articles on the topic of Gender.