Not everything that's ever been on the front page, but anything we think might still be interesting or relevant.
August 2005
Media requests
Here's another one we agreed to publicise:
Samantha McAlister is planning to do a 30 minute documentary for Radio 4 entitled Night in the City. It will be about London city life and the idea is to use a 1955 documentary of the same name and contrast it with modern times.
In the original documentary a female and male sex worker talked about their lives. Samantha is looking for up to three people who currently work as sex workers somewhere in London to be interviewed for the programme.
The interviews will be pre-recorded on mini disc, will take about 20 minutes, can be done wherever you like and are totally anonymous. It doesn't matter where you work as a sex worker.
There is a fee available of £50.
The kind of questions you would be asked are:
- How did you become involved in sex work?
- What do you hope to do in the future?
- What are the ups and downs of doing sex work?
- What's the best thing that has happened to you whilst doing sex work?
- What's the worse thing that's happened to you whist doing sex work?
- What do you friends/family think about you doing sex work? Do they know?
If you are interested in taking part you can contact [contact details]
December 2004
A mystery solved!
At the start of 2003, we had a lot of calls asking if we were the charity named 'Streetwise' which was planning to use an old coastal defence platform in the middle of the Humber Estuary for use as a 'detox centre' for young people.
At the time, we didn't know which of the charities which also use the word 'streetwise' in their name it was - we just knew it wasn't us!
Well, thanks to a call from them, we now know who it is: the Streetwise Charitable Trust, also known as Detox UK.
The website details at the Charity Commission are wrong - it's actually www.detox.org.uk (warning: the legal info is slightly out of date and make sure your font size is small or you may miss some text!)
July 2004
Local Thai male masseur murdered
We were asked to help publicise the police's appeal for help with this incident.
Update: Three men were charged with the murder in the following weeks - Darren Marcus Johnson of Battersea, Muhammed Nduka of Southwark, and a third man from Croydon. Their trial date has been postponed a couple of times and we believe it is currently scheduled for 6th March 2006.
The body of Niphan Trikhana, known locally as Nikki, was found at his new basement flat in Cranley Place, Kensington, on 23rd July. He had been strangled and had also been stabbed.
Nikki was 32. He had come to Britain in 2001 and had moved from a flat in Pembridge Road, Notting Hill, ten days before his murder. As well as his Thai massage work, he was also studying English at the Lilian Bishop School in Harrington Road, where he was last seen on 15th July. Detectives think he was killed between then and the 20th July.
When his body was discovered, he was fully clothed and did not appear to have been sexually assaulted. There had been no break-in and police believe he probably knew his killer(s) and had let them in.
Appealing for help, Detective Inspector Bill Jephson said: "We are keen to hear from any friends, or anyone who knew Nikki, either as a student or as a masseur. People can speak to us in confidence at the incident room and if they feel more comfortable talking to a gay officer, they can do so."
If you have any information, please call 020 8358 0200 or you can call the charity Crimestoppers on freephone 0800 555 111. Both lines are confidential.
May 2004
Sexual Offences Act 2003
This came into force on the 1st May. For more details on the act itself and its effect see the UK sex work law section of our website.
April 2004
Comfort is leaving
After nine years, our housekeeper, Comfort, is leaving on Friday 2nd April.
Responsible for, amongst other things, cooking and serving most of the thousands of meals we provide each year in the café, she has been here longer than any other current member of staff and we wish her well.
Self defence & confidence building course
Explore, discuss, learn and practice ways to keep yourself safe in a variety of places and situations!
Run by GMFA, this ran for three Saturdays: 24th & 31st April and 7th May. There were up to twenty places which could be booked through us.
For more details, see GMFA's description.
Someone who has emailed us...
You're probably familiar with 'Hello, it's your bank, honest, look we've got all the right logos and everything. Anyway, please give us all your details at plausible-address.co.uk@nastyaddress-concealed-by-having-it-in-hex.somewhere' fraudulant spam.
Here's one that arrived here recently which we think deserves even wider circulation:
Hello dear client Barclays Bank.
Today our system of safety at night has been cracked!!!
It not a joke!!! It is the truth!!!
We ask you, in order to prevent problems, to repeat
registration of your data. Make it very quickly!
Administration Barclays Bank.
Plain html, no graphics. Plus the way they've done the dodgy URL means it doesn't work (in our wonderful non-Microsoft email program, anyway: Outlook would probably have been fooled).
February 2004
Media requests
We get quite a few of these. We do not put journalists in touch with our clients, nor do we recommend that clients respond to requests without thinking about the consequences. However, we do sometimes agree to publicise them, eg:
A freelance journalist is doing a feature for Gay Times on prostitution and the recent/pending changes in the law.
He is looking for one male or transgender sex worker who would be willing to be interviewed for the article. Ideally he would also like them to be prepared to have their photograph taken to go with the article, but this is not essential.
The intention is that the article presents a positive image of sex work. The sort of questions he wants to ask will be:
• Life experiences
• How you ended up being involved in sex work
• The legal aspects of the work
• What it is like being a sex worker on a day to day basisIdeally he needs to interview people by [date now gone]. There is no payment involved, however anyone he interviews will get a free ad in the escort section of Gay Times.
Contact us for more information.
December 2003
Streetwise finalists in Community Care Awards
Not us, but the 'Streetwise 2000 Young Persons Project'. They were finalists in the Mental Health section. We don't know anything more about them, beyond that they're based in Bury - if you want to know more, please contact Bury council's Personal and Community Services.
Congratulations, though, to them and The Hull Beat sex work project, finalists in the Interagency section.
July 2003
The sun shone long enough at Pride in the Park to get one photo at least:
"Prior to a long day handing out free condoms and info on our stall shared with the ever helpful Stonewall Housing, an SW5 project member stocks up on the (non-free) cider..."
March 2003
Well, the builders have definitely been at work in the basement. You can see some 'before' and 'during' photos here so you can look forward to the after!
Monday 31st March saw the opening of the new café service!
Sex work has changed in the past fifteen years. We used the time the basement was closed to review our services.
One of the things we've done is adopt the name SW5. Most of the people who use our services don't work on the street. Many of them don't identify as 'youths'. SW5 could stand for 'sex workers' or 'streetwise', it's up to you. It's certainly part of our postcode!
February 2003
A charity called Streetwise is apparently planning to use an old coastal defence platform in the middle of the Humber Estuary for use as a 'detox centre' for young people.
From what we can see the deal was actually agreed back in January 1999, but we've had a lot of calls about it following an article in the Daily Mirror, and we're still getting the odd one.
We are aware that since we were founded in 1986, several charities have also used the word 'streetwise' in their name. We don't know which one is involved with this detox centre... but we are absolutely certain it's not us!
Our territorial ambitions stopped with the purchase - thanks to many generous donors - of our building in Earl's Court in London.
Update: Thanks to a call from them in December 2004, we now know who it is: the Streetwise Charitable Trust, also known as Detox UK.
The website details at the Charity Commission are wrong - it's actually www.detox.org.uk (warning: the legal info is slightly out of date and make sure your font size is small or you may miss some text!)
January 2003
Snow!
