General objective

The project aims to provide permanent access to schooling for girls by restoring school facilities and providing school supplies. It also seeks to improve access to healthcare services, promoting children’s rights and a culture of peace.

Specific objective

The project aims to provide permanent access to schooling for girls by restoring school facilities and providing school supplies. It also seeks to improve access to healthcare services, promoting children’s rights and a culture of peace.

Expected results

Social reconciliation and the development of a culture of peace. The removal of socioeconomic barriers that restrict access to quality education and efficient healthcare services. The development of the community’s production capabilities, starting with women.

About the project

Mozambique experienced a devastating civil war in the 1980s, paying a terrible price in terms of human lives and development. The peace agreement, signed in 1992, encouraged foreign investment and resulted in an exceptional rate of economic growth. Thus far, however, this has failed to bring about any real improvement in the living conditions of the general population.

In 2012, clashes broke out between government forces and the paramilitary wing of the main opposition party, with Gorongosa District at the heart of the violence. Many families were forced to take refuge in reception centres set up by the government or in the nearby forests, putting a halt to social, economic and production processes.

Our operators in Mozambique, where Helpcode has been present since 1988, carried out an in-depth analysis of the country’s needs thanks to ongoing discussions with civil society (community leaders, school heads and citizens) and with local government institutions.

The principal result of this study is the need to support local authorities in order to strengthen the resilience of the population. The need to bring back basic services is therefore of paramount importance. It is especially crucial to restore access to education and to contribute to the rebuilding of the area’s economic and production frameworks, focusing in particular on the productive capabilities of women in order to maximise their contribution to the peacekeeping process.

Based on this thorough analysis of the area’s needs and requirements, we decided to launch initiatives to bring back school services, restore health services, and improve the population’s food security and nutrition levels, particularly among children. To overcome the issues of malnutrition and people living on the breadline, we believe that it is vital to support the development of the community’s production capacity, with women as the strategic focal point of a form of development that ensures food security and an income for the most vulnerable families.

With this project, we aim to help consolidate a process of reconciliation and a culture of peace; without a genuine process of reconciliation and social/communal reconstruction, there can be no development and no peace in Mozambique.

Project costs

50.000 €

Beneficiaries

43.525 membri della comunità di cui:

  • 2.688 girls
  • 3.336 boys
  • 81 professors (including 25 women)

Project backers

  • Ministero degli Affari Esteri e della Cooperazione Internazionale
  • Cantone di Ginevra (HCS)

Partners

  • Terre des Hommes
  • Rural Association for Mutual Support (ORAM)
  • Serviço Distrital de Educação, Juventude e Tecnologia (SDEJT)

Project Leader

Matteo Raineri

Matteo Ranieri

Gorongosa Office