Anne Philpott
Founder & Co-Director
Annie is a public health professional, pleasure propagandist and ‘guerrilla girl’ of HIV prevention. She founded ’The Pleasure Project’ in 2004, in frustration of endless AIDS meetings where no one talked about people’s motivations for having sex, or even pretended sexually transmitted infections were airborne. Annie has over 20 peer-reviewed articles in respected health journals and more in the mainstream media, and has been a speaker at international conferences, promoting pleasure in sex education and as the ultimate indicator of female empowerment. She has also published articles on nutrition and disease prevention services.
Annie has learnt from many, through her varied career in both delivery of sex education and frontline services, to managing grants and commissioning health programmes. Annie developed her passion for sexual and public health, through working with one of the UK’s first teenage pregnancy projects in the UK, domestic violence refuges in London and by starting many of the world’s first female condom programmes. She also worked in South Africa during the early years of the AIDS epidemic. She has lived and worked in the UK, South Africa, Sri Lanka, India and Thailand in a variety of roles. Annie has a degree in Psychology and a Masters (MSc) in Health Policy from the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine.
Arushi Singh
Co-Director
Arushi became a Pleasure Propagandist in 2006 and started with training young people to sexy up their sex education in India, the UK, Bangladesh and Vietnam, doing pleasure body mapping at the Bali conference on AIDS in Asia-Pacific, and encouraging all to draw on our Great Wall of Vagina in Delhi.
She is an expert in gender, sexuality, pleasure and rights. Arushi believes in a feminist, decolonial approach to gender justice and pleasure-based sexual health. She has conducted multi-country assessments, studies and desk reviews, developed toolkits and training curricula, done qualitative and participatory evaluations of large-scale, multi-country projects and facilitated regional and international consultations and workshops for UN and government officials, NGO personnel, service providers, and diverse young people, including key populations. She spent almost six years at UNESCO and led the team working on comprehensive sexuality education.
Previously, she worked for the International Planned Parenthood Federation’s (IPPF) South Asia Regional Office and was responsible for leading the strategy on adolescents’ and young people’s SRHR programmes across South Asia. She also worked for Amnesty International’s India Office and the Commonwealth Youth Programme’s Asia Centre. Arushi has a Masters degree in Globalisation and Communications from the University of Leicester, UK.
Francesca Barolo
Director of Operations
Francesca brings a wealth of experience in women’s rights and sexual health advocacy, spanning over two decades across grassroots to national and international levels. Her ethos is grounded in a staunch rejection of discrimination and oppression, propelled by an enduring dedication to fairness and justice. Born in Italy and now based in India for more than 20 years, Francesca joined the team in 2021. With a strong academic background including an MA in Sociology from Delhi School of Economics and an MA in Peacekeping Management from the University of Turin, she leads operations at The Pleasure Project to drive impactful change.
Elena Ascione
Strategic Communication Lead
Elena is a seasoned expert in digital media, she has experience campaigning for SRHR and sexual identity diversity inclusion, with special attention toward LGBTQIA+ rights, in youth led organizations like CHOICE for Youth and Sexuality, NGOs such as Chayn Italia, and cultural institutions. Working as our Communication and Advocacy Associate, Elena offers a background in both B.A. Linguistic and Cultural Mediation as well as M.A. Gender Studies thereby meeting a vital and much overlooked intersection between cross-cultural communication and activism. Currently, she is pursuing a second M.A. in Philosophy at the University of Verona. Elena is active in a variety of grassroot transfeminist queer collectives that mobilize ideas through alternative pedagogies such as storytelling and collective learning through art. Elena believes firmly in the importance to bridge the gap between grassroot feminist approaches and advocacy.
