Backed by AmplifyChange, the Ohotu Diamond Women Initiative has turned stigma into solidarity, training sex workers as health advocates and transforming local attitudes toward reproductive rights and safe abortion.
By Bunmi Yekini
For years, Lagos sex workers lived in the shadows, feared, judged, and often ignored by a health system that demanded answers before offering care. Today, many of these same women are standing tall, speaking boldly about their rights, and helping others make safer choices about their bodies.
At the heart of this quiet transformation is the Ohotu Diamond Women Initiative (ODWI), a sex worker–led organisation that has spent the past year breaking barriers and building trust in Lagos communities under a project supported by AmplifyChange.
“We started from a place of fear and resistance,” recalled Dr. Margaret Onah-Nnah, the project coordinator for ODWI. “When we first entered the brothels, the women were reluctant to talk about abortion. We had to plead, explain, and fight through the stigma before they began to trust us.”
According to her, many sex workers did not know where to seek accurate information or safe services. “We made them understand that we were not there to accuse them,” she said. “We wanted to teach them where to go and how to protect themselves. Once they understood, they became eager to learn, and even to teach others.”
Breaking the wall of stigma
That message soon spread beyond the brothels. With technical support from the New HIV Vaccine and Microbicides Advocacy Society (NHVMAS), ODWI conducted a baseline study to assess the sexual and reproductive health needs of female sex workers in Agege and Ifako-Ijaiye. The results, said Mrs. Florita Durueke, Executive Director of NHVMAS, “helped expose the gaps, unsafe abortions, stigma in health facilities, and lack of access to contraception.”
Armed with data, the group developed policy briefs and engaged government officials, including the Lagos State Ministry of Health. “We challenged the non-operationalisation of the safe abortion guideline already developed by the state,” Durueke said. “We wanted Lagos to own this response and not just rely on donor funding.”
One of the project’s biggest wins came when health workers began to change their attitudes. “Initially, the ministry didn’t want us to train their staff,” Dr. Onah-Nnah explained. “They said health workers already knew enough and didn’t discriminate. But after we showed them real cases of stigma, they listened.”
Health officials soon began meeting sex workers face-to-face in brothels. “That changed everything,” she said. “The women named the centres where they were mistreated, and the health workers saw where the problems really were. Now, when these women go to clinics, they are no longer turned away.”
Voices from the field
For Salome Mathias, one of ODWI’s trained ambassadors in Agege, the change has been life-saving. “Before I joined ODWI, we used to lose teenage girls to unsafe abortion,” she said. “But in the past year, there’s been no death, none. Now, I just direct anyone in trouble to the primary health centre.”
Another ambassador, Calista Amadi, described how the training gave her confidence and a voice. “I’ve learned my rights as a woman,” she said. “Now, other women come to me with their questions. The most common one is about abortion, it’s so sensitive. But I’m glad I can help them make safer choices.”
Precious Daniel, also an ambassador, said the ripple effect of knowledge has been powerful. “When you educate one woman, she educates another,” she said. “That’s how we’re changing things in our community.”
From hostility to hope
Government health officials, once skeptical, are now some of ODWI’s biggest allies. Comfort Otokiti, Family Planning Manager for Agege Local Government, said she has seen a “remarkable shift” since the project began.
“When we started, many sex workers complained that they were harassed at health centres,” she said. “We visited those facilities and told the staff to treat them as sisters. Now, family planning services are free, antenatal care is free, and they call me directly when they need help.”
For Esther Tani-Mowu Thomas, Health Education Officer in Ifako-Ijaiye, the project bridged a long-standing gap. “It’s not easy to gather sex workers and talk about reproductive health,” she said. “But ODWI made it possible. Today, they no longer feel like outsiders.”
A milestone, and a movement
For Imaobong Abraham, ODWI’s Executive Director, the journey has been personal. “We are the only sex worker–led organisation in Nigeria,” she said proudly at the project’s end-of-year town hall. “This is our voice, our movement. What we didn’t know before, we know now, and we’re sharing that knowledge with others.”
As the project enters its renewal phase, ODWI plans to expand its reach to include street-based sex workers and hotspots across both Agege and Ifako-Ijaiye.
“Our ambassadors will go beyond the brothels,” said Dr. Onah-Nnah. “They’ll find women on the streets, educate them, and make sure no one is left behind.”
The impact, however, extends far beyond the brothels. It’s about changing mindsets, among women, health workers, and policymakers alike.
As Mrs. Durueke of NHVMAS put it, “This isn’t just about safe abortion or contraception. It’s about dignity, choice, and the right of every woman, no matter her trade, to access healthcare without fear.”