Document Type
Article
Publication Date
7-2014
Abstract
In 2005, with two of my students, I started a literacy program in a red-light district in Guatemala City. In 2007, we became a nonprofi t organization dedicated to the promotion of the rights of sex workers in Guatemala (i.e., Women for Justice, Education, and Awareness, known in Spanish as MuJER). Today, MuJER provides literacy classes and accelerated elementary school, vocational training, antiviolence programs, and grassroots organizing. We have worked with hundreds of women, both at our Community Empowerment Center and “door-to-door” in red-light districts. Using the experience of MuJER, this article provides recommendations for professors interested in working with students to create a nonprofi t in the developing world: select students whose skill sets are diff erent than your own; start by creating a program (not by formally establishing a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt organization); and recognize that the nonprofi t’s long-term sustainability requires commitment to grant writing for years to come.
Original Publication Citation
Finkel, Jodi. “Empowering Sex Workers in Guatemala: Establishing a Sustainable Nonprofit (with Students) in a Developing Country.” PS: Political Science & Politics 47, no. 3 (July 2014): 687–91. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1049096514000845.
Digital Commons @ LMU & LLS Citation
Finkel, Jodi, "Empowering Sex Workers in Guatemala: Establishing a Sustainable Nonprofit (with Students) in a Developing Country" (2014). Political Science and International Relations Faculty Works. 307.
https://digitalcommons.lmu.edu/poli_fac/307
