A YEAR IN
MOZAMBIQUE
2010
SUMMARY REPORT
‘I know the following rights: right to a name, right to be registered and to have a birth certificate, right to education, right to health and medication and right to play’, (Marrumuana, grade six student)
3
OUR PRIORITIES
GOOD REASONS
in Mozambique
why Plan works in Mozambique
• Improving the quality of preschool and primary education
• More than half the population live on less than US$2 a day • Up to 20 per cent of adults are affected by HIV/AIDS
• Raising standards of maternal and child healthcare
• Infant, child and maternal mortality rates are high and quality healthcare services are scarce
• Improving the incomes of farming families • Promoting children’s rights and child protection
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Cu Economy: The country an is still do one of the world’s poorest o and and most underdeveloped. Cu O k NAMIBIA Mozambique remainsavango
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dependent upon foreign assistance for much of its annual budget, and a large majority of the population BOTSWANA remains below the poverty line. Subsistence agriculture continues to employ the vast majority of the country’s workforce.
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different African languages Climate: Mozambique has a tropical climate with two seasons – a wet season from October to March and a dry season from April to September. Climatic conditions, however, vary depending on altitude. Rainfall is heavy along the coast and decreases in the north and south.
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Capital: Maputo Cunene Population: 21.7 million Languages: Portuguese and 16
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Mozambique Facts
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‘The culture of saving is getting rooted in our school and community’
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Focus on:
The Bigger Picture
education
Plan’s education program emphasises the importance of primary and nursery education. We are training volunteer nursery teachers, developing nursery school materials and raising parents’ awareness of the importance of education in the early years. We are also helping to build new primary schools, rehabilitating existing ones
and providing educational materials. We’re supporting teacher training – including special education training to improve the teaching of children with special needs. Finally, we’re teaching vulnerable children basic resource management skills at children’s clubs in schools.
Benito’s story
Benito is 15 years old and has to face up to more responsibilities than the average teenager. His parents are dead and he lives with his three younger brothers and attends year five of his local primary school. Benito is by no means unusual. It’s estimated that up to 1.4 million children in Mozambique have been orphaned by HIV/AIDS. Such vulnerable youngsters need support to make sure they receive a decent education and the healthcare they need. But when the responsibility of heading a family also falls to them, they need help with skills more commonly associated with adults: handling money and managing a family budget. Learning smart ways to make the most of scarce resources and build up a nest-egg of savings is vital for child-headed families – families for whom a ‘financial shock’ such as an accident, a bout of malaria or the loss of a bicycle could lead to sudden expenses that plunge them from poverty into destitution. Money wise Part of Plan’s work to help such families in Mozambique is an initiative to impart a culture of saving. It’s a project that has helped many children – not only to value the resources in their community but to get an insight into how to manage them. The Aflatoun project aims to reduce poverty by helping children to empower themselves socially and financially, so they understand their rights and responsibilities and feel confident managing money and saving for the future. In Guipombo, the Aflatoun project began by training Benito’s teachers, who in turn showed the children the logic of saving. ‘It is basically teaching us and the community a saving culture,’ says Benito.
Produced for Mozambique by Plan International Australia.
• Doubled the number of communities we work with, bringing the total number of sponsored children to 4500 • Created ten health committees in ten communities and trained 36 health volunteers in maternal and child heath
Case study: Getting to grips with budgeting and saving has its challenges for most young people – not least for a teenager like Benito living in rural poverty in Mozambique.
Plan is working with children, families and communities to find sustainable solutions to the challenges in Mozambique. We have only given you a small insight into Plan’s work in Mozambique with this report but over the past year we also:
Teen spirit Children at Benito’s school started to make money from activities such as producing handicrafts. They save the money using deposit boxes and keep track with basic accounting books. Resources in rural Mozambique are limited, so any extra saving can make a big difference to the lives of families. As a result, it’s not just the children who are beginning to realise how much sense saving makes.
• Set up the first Child Helpline in Mozambique, enabling children to report mistreatment • Distributed goats to a total of 131 poor rural families to improve their financial position. Your support as a sponsor is crucial to achieving these results. With the resources provided by sponsors, Plan expertise and the collaboration of communities and local partners we are making a big difference to the lives of people in Mozambique. Thank you for your involvement!
‘The culture of saving is getting rooted in our school and community. Besides saving money and school materials, we are also managing to save household items such as washing powder,’ says Benito. At the school the children have two boxes – one for money and one for other valuable items. The savings are announced on a daily basis for every student, to encourage all the children to get more involved in the initiative.
To learn more about Plan’s work in Mozambique visit plan.org.au/ourwork/ southernafrica/mozambique
Saving grace The Aflatoun project is not just about making money. By putting children in control of their finances, we hope to give them a sense of power over their futures. Children’s aspirations will eventually shape Mozambique, after all. We’re trying to inspire them with the belief that they can become powerful agents for positive change. Some names have been changed for child protection and privacy reasons
‘We’re trying to inspire children with the belief that they can become powerful agents for positive change’
‘We want to help Mozambican youth to fly with their dreams and achieve their potential so in turn they can help in building their society’ – Habte Woldemariam, Plan’s Country Director in Mozambique