Embrace Dignity

Embrace Dignity is located in Cape Town, South Africa on 123 Hope St, Gardens,. Embrace Dignity is rated 3 out of 5 in the category non-governmental organization in South Africa. In 2010, Embrace Dignity opened its doors with the purpose of empowering prostituted people like Grizelda Grootboom and creating a legal and social environment that would support them and increase their options to exit rather than criminalise and stigmatise already victimized people. Founded by Nozizwe Madlala-Routledge, a former Deputy Minister of Health and Defence, and Jeremy Routledge, a former Director of the Quaker Peace Centre, we actively pursue and support a law on prostitution in South Africa that recognises that prostitution is violence against women, undermines gender equality and perpetuates patriarchy. We are advocating for a law that is based on the Nordic system – which criminalises the purchaser of sex and decriminalises the seller – but also recognises the impact of societal problems within South Africa, such as poverty, unemployment, poor education, and a high drop-out rate amongst learners on vulnerable persons. Such a law would: 1. Focus on the demand by criminalising the purchase of sex; 2. Support those who have been prostituted by decriminalising the sale of sex provide support for those in prostitution to increase their skills and options for employment; 3. Criminalise third parties that exploit and benefit from income made from prostitution. This type of law has been referred to as the Swedish law, the Nordic law, the equality law or “the third way”. We provide support to those who wish to exit prostitution mainly through referrals to counselling, skills training, small business development and education providers; by supporting survivor initiatives; and by building a survivor network. We are currently evaluating our Exit Programme so we can draw on our successes and failures and implement what works and share that information with others.