Shanghai Leyi volunteers prepare material for their next outreach program.

Shanghai Leyi does what the police and other government institutions can't, offering help and advice to the city’s most marginalized and vulnerable: sex workers

Zheng Huang is privy to a world that many trivialize, ignore or disrespect: the lives of Shanghai’s sex workers. It’s easy for outsiders to forget the people behind the trade, but Zheng emphasizes that those who enter the profession put themselves at risk, both physically and legally. Zheng’s organization, Shanghai Leyi, has become an important resource and the only organization working with sex workers in Shanghai. 

Leyi reaches out mainly to Shanghai’s male sex workers, who aren't as visible as their female counterparts. “We just want to create a better environment for sex workers,” says Zheng. “They’re still people, they have rights.”

For those who might argue that an organization to help those in an illegal profession do their work safely makes no sense, Zheng answers, “Any industry exists because it answers a need. This is the same.”

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