Cuida! A construção de cuidado com trabalhadoras do sexo na Barra do Ceará

Abstract

This research comes from one of the extension programs developed by the Núcleo de Estudos Sobre Drogas (NUCED), which is called “Cuida! Práticas Integradas de Cuidado com Trabalhadoras do Sexo da Barra do Ceará”. It had as na objective to systematize, historically criticizing, this work, through interviews with people involved with the action since its creation. The action began in 2015, due to our insertion in an institution sustained by the Fortaleza City Hall – The Center of Culture, Art, Science and Sport (CUCA) – located at Barra do Ceará, with practices related to the health care of women who work as prostitutes at the area, collaborating, than, with actions that were already being developed by Social Educators and Community Health Agent from the Health Center Lineu Jucá. Those actions has an ethical-political guideline the Harm Reduction. Initially, they consisted of the distribution of inputs directly linked to sexual practices, after, they were expanding, both in terms of the physical area of coverage of the Project, as well as in the content of addressed issues and in the creativity in the development of care strategies, including games and plays with diverse themes (violence, rights, use of psychoactive substances, etc). Through these activities, the “Cuida!” has become an important tool for bringing women closer to the public policy services of the region (CUCA, ESF, CAPS, CRAS), as well as promoting spaces of care and empowerment of sex workers not only as a subject of rights, but also against sexist practices in parental, conjugal and community relations. The importance of writing down this history lies in the need to think about health policies that guarantee, in an effective way, a universal and integral access to health. Thus, to systematize this story is to seek to understand our growth as a team and the dimensions of transdisciplinary work in the construction of innovative care methodologies, making it possible to reinvent health promotion. In addition, making this record by means of an academic research is to strengthen the action as an university extension program and, at the same time, as a public health policy.