Bayarmaa says the sex workers she educates have gotten younger and younger since she started working nearly a decade ago for the NGO “Perfect Ladies” in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia. She says more girls and young women as young as 16 have entered sex work because, for example, their parents cannot find jobs. Bayarmaa, a monitoring and evaluation officer at the Global Fund-supported NGO, says the girls and young women can be poor, single, vulnerable to violence and misunderstood so the educational trainings put on by Perfect Ladies are critical for their protection, safety and well-being. June 2019.

Perfect Ladies training sessions cover topics like HIV and STI prevention, safety, voluntary counseling and testing, stress management, and other sexual and reproductive health themes. With Global Fund support, the organization aims to reach 2,900 sex workers and others in 2019.