Petals and thorns : the dilemmas of PLA and debt bondage

Successful participatory activities rely on community interest and enthusiasm. The very involvement of participants is assumed to demonstrate their consent, and the number of activities or rates of attendance often serve as process indicators for monitoring a project. However, what if community members do not control their daily movements? This article examines the dilemmas faced by a community development project working with debt-bonded sex workers in Cambodia. It outlines the ethical concerns that the project team has faced so far, and described in detail what steps were taken to try to address the most important of these issues: that of consent