Voices of Women Media, The Netherlands

Voices of Women Media is an Amsterdam based group which provides women from marginalised communities with various media tools, such as video, radio and photography, to enable them to voice their own lives. These women include migrant women, sex workers, former sex workers, and trafficked women. Women learn to use multimedia to tell their own stories and to present themselves accurately in the face of overwhelming stereotypes and misrepresentation in the mainstream media.

Many people have strong stereotypes about marginalised women, including those who have been trafficked and sex workers.. Women are seen either as victims, or as making choices and on top of it all. But as in any other area of life, there are many grey zones. Voices of Women Media gives the women the skills and the opportunity to express the complexities of their lives. The goal is to use media to create a more humanised and multi-faceted picture of women whose voices are often ignored.

A spokeswoman of Voices of Women Media says about sex work and trafficking: ‘We want to show this industry as a complex fabric, composed both of women workers who are entitled to demand their rights as workers and women who have been forced into the industry. We are creating a moving exhibition that tells the stories of sex workers and trafficked women in their own voices and images. In the long-term, we want to create an independent media centre run by and for women from these communities.’

Voices of Women Media received grants in 2006, 2009, 2010 and 2012.