From SWAAY.org:
“Google announced last week that they are making the largest-ever corporate donation to “ending modern day slavery”: an impressive $11.5 million dollars. We applaud and support Google’s desire to fight slavery, forced trafficking, and exploitative labor conditions, but Google’s funding recipients include three NGOs that cause serious harm to sex workers around the world: International Justice Mission, Polaris Project, and Not for Sale. As front line sex worker support services struggle for funding to serve their communities, it is offensive to watch Google shower money upon a wealthy faith-based group like the International Justice Mission, which took in nearly $22 million dollars in 2009 alone. (In contrast, the St. James Infirmary, a San Francisco clinic that provides free healthcare to sex workers, operated on only $335k in 2010.)”
Read more at http://www.swaay.org/action/google.html
On December 21st, several members of the Bay Area chapter of the Sex Workers Outreach Project peacefully handed out 200 fliers in front of the San Francisco Google offices. Many Google employees stopped and discussed the topic, and no one argued or opposed our concerns. A Google employee came down and asked if we had “been inside” or “talked to anyone”, meaning if we had had a dialogue with the company. We replied we were trying, that they’re not that publicly accessible, so this is the beginning of our dialogue. He said they’re interested in us giving a talk in the new year, that the company probably “just didn’t do their research”, and took my card. Another Google employee came down and took a handful of fliers, saying she was totally supportive and had heard about it on the SWAAY Twitter account (@SWAAYorg). They were both very understanding and supportive. We look forward to a productive and educational dialogue with Google soon!
SWOP Bay Area members Patricia West, Bettina Doll, Jolene Parton, Arabelle Raphael
SWOP Bay Area members Starchild, Bettina Doll, Sandy Bottoms
SWOP Bay Area members Sandy Bottoms, Bettina Doll, Jolene Parton, Arabelle Raphael
SWOP Bay Area member Sandy Bottoms
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