Overview

Hands Off II seeks to reduce all forms of violence against sex workers and violations of their human rights in Mozambique. The project ensures more timely protection of sex workers and influences laws in favor of sex workers, while enabling them to access quality health services and protect themselves from HIV and AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases.

Through the Hands Off II project, Pathfinder partners with national and local authorities and technical partners in providing sustainable responses to the difficulties encountered by sex workers. This project builds on the successes of Hands Off (the first phase of the project) to pilot innovative strategies and scale up successful interventions that reduce violence against sex workers. The project increases sex workers access to inclusive health and social services, creates a more supportive and enabling environment for their work, and protects and empowers them so that they can organize themselves into a movement of sex workers that demands its rights.

Project Activities

Hands Off II provides ongoing support to sex worker communities in close partnership with the National Sex Workers Rights Platform and local organizations. This includes:

• Engaging sex workers roundtables, lectures, debates and reaching them through home visits and telephone calls.
• Mobilizing sex workers into a movement and uniting them in defending their rights.
• Reinforcing sex workers use of complaint mechanisms and supporting registration and follow-up of cases of violence reported by sex workers until their conclusion at provincial violence offices.
• Supporting follow-up on referrals of psychosocial care cases.
• Coordinating the involvement of key populations in project activities, and the National Sex Workers Rights Platform.
• Monitoring the implementation of the National Sex Workers Rights Platform’s code of conduct for sex workers.
• Developing healthy relationships with the police and disseminating the Police Trainer’s Manual within the police force including police procedures for serving key populations.
• Strengthening the National Sex Workers Rights Platform by strengthening the capacity of local leaders and sex workers associations that are members of the platform.
• Empowering the media to be allies in producing journalistic pieces that further sex workers’ human rights.