Micro-entrepreneurship programs and sexual health prevention among sex workers in Cambodia: is an integrative approach the way forward?

Abstract

Improving livelihoods through entrepreneurship activities and program implementation are increasingly considered as key drivers for enhancing health of the participants and reducing their proneness to diseases. Combined programs of entrepreneurship and health education have yet to be widely applied to the practice of promoting sexual health. However, there has been the emergence of small projects focused on both financial and educational aspects of sex workers. The objective of these programs is to favor the empowerment of vulnerable groups through skills training in order to decrease sexual risk among them. Considering the well-known structural links between poverty and HIV/AIDS, combined micro-enterprise development and health educational programs have been implemented among sex workers in order to reduce the risk of HIV/AIDS among these categories of women. This article aims to explore the potential of these combined programs of entrepreneurship and health education to create new models and strategies to improve sexual health among groups at greatest risk of infection such as the sex workers in Phnom Penh, Cambodia.