In Mozambique sex workers are often harassed by police office and treated unfairly by health professional, these treatments coupled with an unclear legal situation, is preventing sex workers from claiming their Sexual and Reproductive Health Rights (SRHR). INERELA+ Mozambique has been in the forefront in advocating the health and safety of the sex workers through the Hands-off Programme. Pastor, Delfonso Afonso Morais (44), from Evangelical Assembly of God church in Matola, Maputo Province is one of the Religious Leaders who was trained by INERELA+ Mozambique as an agent of change through the Hands-Off Programme. After being training pastor Morais set up a programme to engage young people in his church to address issues related to sex workers rights and SRHR.
Pastor Morais indicated that at first, he felt uneasy about engaging issues that are related to sex work because it has always been seen as an immoral act. However the presents of other religious leaders and the knowledge he gained about human rights during the training made him realise there’s a role the church can play to safeguard human rights, including those of sex workers. Morais stated “At the training I started learning more about human rights and as I read the bible every day after training, I got excited as I read about the role of the church regarding every challenging issues the church needs to tackle” To share the knowledge he gained, he started a programme to educated young people in his church about sex work, HIV and GBV and the role of church to address these issues. “first I had to put a program with the youth before engaging the other groups, to my surprise the young people had knowledge on this issues as most of them were part of youth programs at schools regarding the youth and adolescent initiative”. The Pastor indicated that the next step is to engages other groups in the church on regarding this issue.