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Mobile sex clinic to care for Copenhagen’s sex workers

Christian Wenande
November 10th, 2016


This article is more than 8 years old.

Organisation behind successful drug injection room to run proceedings

The ‘Sexelance’ – not your typical ambulance (photo: Sexelance)

Local citizens and sex workers have teamed up for a new initiative aimed at watching out for Copenhagen’s street prostitutes.

In the Vesterbro district of Copenhagen a new mobile sex clinic, dubbed ‘Sexelance’, will help tackle the threat of violence the sex workers face on the streets when plying their trade.

“We know that a little over 40 percent of sex workers on the streets are exposed to threats or violence,” Michael Lodberg Olsen, the head of social aid organisation Foreningen Minoritet, told Metroxpress newspaper.

“But if you are a sex worker in a clinic, that figure is just 3 percent. We are trying to create an alternative that is worthy and safer than having customers on the street and in the public space.”

READ MORE: Drug injection rooms a resounding success

Fixing up new idea
Foreningen Minoritet, which was also behind Denmark’s first and hugely successful drug injection room in 2011, and sex worker advocacy group Sexarbejdernes Interesseorganisation have been charged with running the clinic.

‘Sexelancen’ is a rebuilt former ambulance and was out in Copenhagen for the first time yesterday evening. The plan is for it to see action every Thursday and Friday, from 16:00-19:00.

The ‘Sexelancen’ is fitted with hygiene articles, condoms, lubricants and cleaning products and manned by at least two volunteers who make sure the sex worker is safe.

Read more about the project here (in Danish).


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A survey carried out by Megafon for TV2 has found that 71 percent of parents have handed over children to daycare in spite of them being sick.

Moreover, 21 percent of those surveyed admitted to medicating their kids with paracetamol, such as Panodil, before sending them to school.

The FOLA parents’ organisation is shocked by the findings.

“I think it is absolutely crazy. It simply cannot be that a child goes to school sick and plays with lots of other children. Then we are faced with the fact that they will infect the whole institution,” said FOLA chair Signe Nielsen.

Pill pushers
At the Børnehuset daycare institution in Silkeborg a meeting was called where parents were implored not to bring their sick children to school.

At Børnehuset there are fears that parents prefer to pack their kids off with a pill without informing teachers.

“We occasionally have children who that they have had a pill for breakfast,” said headteacher Susanne Bødker. “You might think that it is a Panodil more than a vitamin pill, if it is a child who has just been sick, for example.”

Parents sick and tired
Parents, when confronted, often cite pressure at work as a reason for not being able to stay at home with their children.

Many declare that they simply cannot take another day off, as they are afraid of being fired.

Allan Randrup Thomsen, a professor of virology at KU, has heavily criticised the parents’ actions, describing the current situation as a “vicious circle”.

“It promotes the spread of viruses, and it adds momentum to a cycle where parents are pressured by high levels of sick-leave. If they then choose to send the children to daycare while they are still recovering, they keep the epidemic going in daycares, and this in turn puts a greater burden on the parents.”