This page unlocks best practices and lessons learned on reducing violence against sex workers. The lessons were identified during the Hands Off programme. Violence is one of the social and structural determinants that increases the risk to HIV. It impacts how sex workers can protect themselves. Large-scale research shows that if violence against sex workers is tackled, we can prevent up to 25% of new HIV infections. 

The first phase of the Hands Off programme ran from 2015- 2019 in Botswana, Mozambique, Nambia, South Africa and Zimbabwe. The programme is now entering a second phase, set to run until 2025. Aidsfonds worked together with fourteen in-country partners, including many sex worker-led organisations. The project was funded by the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in Mozambique.