ABSTRACT

The UN transitional authority (UNTAC) administered the country in the initial post-conflict years until national elections in 1993. The intervention research project we developed thus built on the integrated medical and health promotion service. While we were committed to the goal of using community mobilization principles to reduce vulnerability to HIV and other adverse outcomes, we confronted an initial challenge in the lack of community identity among Svay Pak sex workers. The experience of the Lotus Club project in Svay Pak, Cambodia, perfectly encapsulated the moment when the largest international donor for HIV programs reversed direction. It illustrates how ideological battles at high levels of policy-making can fundamentally affect conditions on the ground, and how little these processes are influenced by local realities, let alone the wishes and interests of those most likely to live out the consequences of political decisions.