Program Overview

 MAPUTO, Mozambique, April 2015 (LWF ) -  The community of Chiboma, in Chibabava district, Sofala province, no longer leaves in the hands of state institutions the solution of problems affecting them.

A community comprised of 4986 inhabitants, they took the help from LWF in empowering them to advocate for their rights in health. LWF helped them establish a Community Development Committee (CDC). From this forum on, they assumed leadership in debating and finding solutions to the problems within the community.

Advocating and pressing the authorities resulted in the construction of one classroom and the recovery of two sources of potable water previously damaged.

“Before Lutheran Federation came to help us, our only source of water was from Buzi River. We had to walk at least 5 kilometers from our homes to Buzi River to fetch water. It took us 5 hours to complete each journey to get water, back then”, said a member of the CDC.

LWF funded the construction of two water wells. With sources of potable water the community addressed the next challenge: cholera outbreaks. With health education from LWF community development officers, Chiboma people realized they had to fight cholera on their own. “Since 2011, we have community groups distributing chlorine and Certeza (water purifier) at households. Problems of diarrhea are reducing, in the last two years we´ve been anticipating and preventing cholera outbreaks. When stocks finished, we went to Health authorities and asked for more. We sat together, planned and distributed Certeza within the community. We managed to stop cholera”.

They learnt from LWF CDOs that health starts from home, with latrines and hygiene in home place. “Many people now have latrines at home”. A good housecleaning is not the end, however. Next was to sensitize people, whenever they felt sick, to go to health facilities. “Some people don´t like to go to health post, we are sensitizing everyone to go to health post and get treatment”, accounts a member of CDC health sub-committee.

The community of Chiboma graciously celebrates the changes brought by them taking ownership of the solution of their problems.

“Even man fetch water now”, says a woman. “Women now participate actively in the meetings and we are part of the decision making. We work hard in the dissemination of information for pregnant women at home, we sensitize them to deliver at health posts”, adds another.

“Nobody went to pre-natal appointments before, we did not know. Some Women still deliver babies at home, and some died for not knowing. This awareness activities are helping us not being ashamed to approach health facilities now”, says Arminda Tomás.

MAPUTO, Mozambique, April 2015 (LWF ) -The LWF initiative of Village Community Bank (VICOBA) was warmly welcomed by the Chiboma community, in Chibabava district, Sofala province. When we visited them in April 13, the community had savings accounting for 95,000 meticais (less than 3,000 US dollars).

“VICOBA is everyone´s safe pocket here. Last year, the credit from it helped me grow my farm and pay people for ganho-ganho (payment for cultivating in someone´s land)”, says Arminda Tomás.   

“I managed to buy plates for my house roof with VICOBA lending system”, says a member of CDC. “With the amount I borrowed from VICOBA, I rented a tractor to grow a farm of a hectare. And this year I will buy a motorcycle or a grind for my crops”, says Fernando Samuel Nhaússe.

“I had no money to pay lobola for my wife. Thanks to VICOBA now I am a married man”, says with laughter a member of CDC.

 MAPUTO, Mozambique, April 2015 (LWF ) -  With training from LWF CDOs´ and adoption of new agricultural techniques the community of Chiboma is addressing its food security problems and is improving the nutrition of its people.

45 years old, a widow with five children, Arminda Tomás thanks LWF for teaching her new agricultural techniques: “Before Lutheran Federation came, we had poor agriculture practices. Now I know how to align my farm and to get good harvest from my farm. Nobody knew to cultivate corn and peanuts in the same farm,” she emphasizes.  

Alberto Wache, a 50 years old husband and father of seven, used to face hunger for months every year. “Since LWF came here and taught us conservation agriculture, I can last a year with food. Before, I faced hunger for three to four months.”

“Now I mix crops and put beans in the middle of the cultivated area. Beans help save humidity. It is a difference-maker in my life. I managed to buy an irrigation engine with the products of my farming. Because of this engine, I can grow okra and other greeneries the whole year. I grow vegetables the whole year, even when it is not raining”, says a proud Alberto Wache.

MAPUTO, Mozambique, April 2015 (LWF ) - In the rural Mozambique potable water is almost a fantasy, a dream that many fancied would ever come true. A dream of a lifetime. A dream any human rights bill would establish as a basic human right.

Nhampimbi community, comprised of 158 families with an average of 7 persons per household, never had a source of clean water, until 2010.

Bear in mind: Mozambique became independent in 1975. Yes, your counting is right: it took 35 years to get decent water for the people of Nhampimbi, a locality of the district of Buzi, in the central province of Sofala.

 “We used to go to the district administration every day, asking for a clean water source, since the days of colonialism”, said members of Nhampimbi community development committee (CDC).

“We had to wake up early in the morning a walk long distances to fetch water at Búzi River. We would be back home only by 3:00 P.M.”, revealed a woman.  

“On our way to the riverside, to help our Women fetch water, we damaged our bicycles”, said a man.  

In 2010, LWF helped establish a CDC and built a with a water wells, by the hands of the community itself.  “We opened so many farm fields, there are no problems at home, father can go to work and children to school cleaned after taking shower”, said another man.

“Back then, we did not have any planning for our farms, man and woman had to take turns is farming. Now we have planning of what to grow in our farms when and how”, emphasized a woman.

“Water committee president now goes to each and every neighborhood to coordinate the cleaning of our water source. Each month every family contributes with 15 meticais (over 50 cents of a US dollar) for the fund to fix the water source in case of any damage. The amount is deposited in our VICOBA. We have at least 4550 meticais now in our water committee fund”, revealed the chairman of water committee at CDC.

Fernando Abílio Chigovora is an example of a family man whose life changed with the water wells. A husband with 7 children, with the help of his bicycle he collects at least two 10 liters jerry cans of water a day, which suffices the needs of his family.  

“One of my children, who work in South Africa, bought me this bicycle to transport water. From this clean source to my house, it takes me less than an hour to do so. Before the Federation helped us with this water wells, women used to take at least 8 hours to return home with water from the river”, said Chigovora.

“Some man just sent their wives to get water. Now (with CDC awareness sessions) we know that woman have same rights as man. I help my wife at the grind; I take corn and water to the mill, while she is working in it”, added the peasant, whose wife takes care takes care of 32 vulnerable and orphan children in the community. 

MAPUTO, Mozambique, Abril 2015 (LWF) – Teresa Daniel is a young woman in her early twenties whose life witnessed a fortunate turnaround after, by a twist of luck, joining the VICOBA of the Mutindiri community, in Chibabava district, Sofala province.

Mr. Mbepo, an active member of the Mutindiri Community Development Committee (CDC), was recruiting every adult local citizen to join VICOBA, a system of credit and savings which stands for Village Community Bank.

“He tried convince my mother to join it, but my mother told that she was too old to it. Then I took my mother´s place, in 2012”, accounts Teresa. “In 2013 we contributed 50 meticais per month each member. In 2014, we agreed to upgrade the contribution to 200 meticais and in 2015 we upped it to 500 meticais. We are 18 members in our group”, reveals the young mother of two children.

“I asked for a thousand meticais in March 2014, to buy and sell sweets, chips and biscuits in the primary school. In three months I returned the amount, three months before the end of the credit period”, says with smiles Teresa.

Teresa can now afford to do her business with hers and her husband own money generated by the success of her sweets, chips and biscuits for the children at the local primary school. Her husband is a literacy teacher.

With the profits from their local business activities, they bought two subwoofers, to entertain with music the customers in their shop, where they sell local made drinks and stuff. Locally, if you can afford to buy a subwoofer, it says enough about your prosperity.

Teresa Daniel and her husband business success is a testament to how VICOBA is improving the lives of Mutindiri community, to an extent that the CDC, established in 2010, founded a local association. It was officially registered in 23rd January 2014, with technical support and advisory of LWF Sofala project.

ASSIT, which stands for Association Simukai Tsibatrirana, has 20 members, who are evolving from small scale farmers to agricultural business people. ASSIT already applied for local development funding, established by the Government of Mozambique to help districts develop by their own resources.

MAPUTO, Mozambique, Abril 2015 (LWF) – Gaza province is a one of the paradigmatic examples of traditionally male-dominant society that prevails in Mozambique. In almost 40 years of Mozambique independence, only in 2015 a woman, a young woman by the way was appointed Governor of Gaza.

Before that yet, in Chókwe district, south of Gaza, the community of Duvane started challenging this gender imbalance.

There, two women lead the charge since 2010: Catarina Nassone Chongo is the leader of human rights group and Natália Lucas heads the Community Development Committee (CDC).

Catarina Chongo was unanimously chosen by the Community in 2010. She is in charge of a group of six people, two women and four men. “The men respect my leadership, as they acknowledged that I was chosen in an open and free process. And I always try to instill the group spirit in our decision-making. My leadership is to create an environment of dialogue and consensus”, said Mrs. Chongo.

One of the main problems the human rights group faces is the disorder caused by drunken people. “The secret to solve the problems is seat with the people who cause this disorder and openly and frankly dialogue with them, making them accountable to it and advise them to change this misbehavior. Dialogue is the way out”, added the mother of three and grandmother of six.

According to Catarina Chongo, her being leader of a human rights group is just an example of changes that are gradually occurring in Duvane. “Here, by tradition, women were underestimated. In the past, just for eating gizzards of a chicken, the husband would dispose of the wife and send her back to his family. Nowadays, with our youth, it is normal to witness a husband carrying the baby instead of his wife”, concluded this widow who sells used clothes and basic need goods to make ends meet.

Born in 1940, Natalia Lucas was also elected in 2010 to chair the Duvane CDC. “Here in Gaza is not easy for a woman to lead. I was elected while I was caring for my husband, who eventually passed away”, revealed the elder woman.

“People acknowledged my Community work since 1974 in mobilizing people for production activities. God gave me this gift to lead and mobilize people”, added Mrs. Lucas.

With the leadership of these two women and LWF help, Duvane community is addressing its problems. Hunger used to be their daily companion at the dry season came. “With LWF we learnt to grow new crops in the dry season: onion, tomato, lettuce and cabbage”, said Catarina Chongo.

“The Federation community officers taught us how to do our work. They did not give us goods. It is good what we are learning from them”, added Natalia Lucas.

“When Federation help ends, we will miss you, like a visitor who is welcomed in our home and when is time for him to go. But we will not stop doing our work. We now have the knowledge to proceed by ourselves”, continued Mrs. Lucas.

A local VICOBA is one of the good things Duvane Community takes from LWF learning. It is comprised of three groups: Kindlimuka, Hluvukane, Sekeleka.

“Kindlimuka (awakening, in changana language) because we were sleeping and were awake. Hluvukane (attitude) and Seleleka (standing up) because when you wake up and stand up, you start doing the right things and make changes with attitude”, according to Mrs. Lucas.

With VICOBA savings and credit, most of them cut wood to make coal, put in bags and sell.  Natália Lucas makes her living through cutting wood to make charcoal.

They also learnt to produce lamps from ox horns and ovens from clay. They sell the lamps and use the clay ovens to save firewood.

LWF provided them with a water fountain, which they keep and maintain through Monthly fees, 20 meticais (60 cents of a US dollar) from each family.

MAPUTO, Mozambique, Abril 2015 (LWF)  - Hermínio Almeida, 36 years old, is a teacher from Matola, Maputo, working in Mabalane for 9 years. The physical education and natural sciences teacher has witnessed the changes brought to Chireta Community by the work of LWF.

When LWF started working in Chireta, in 2010, he saw people skeptical and with no enthusiasm of its projects. “People were expecting something to be given, but the Federation was clear from the outset, it came here to help, to teach skills and practices and for the community to be organized. Then, people realized on the benefits of it, and started forming groups on specific areas of the issues affecting us, like agriculture, water and sanitation, risk management, traditional healing, religious, school rehabilitation and even sports”, accounts Hermínio.

“Even the community leader welcomed the Federation, for it created a linkage, if not a bond, between him and the community. We rolled up our sleeves and started working together if every walks of life here”, adds an enthusiastic teacher.

Teacher Hermínio recalls the changes he saw in first hand:  in 2011 a cholera outbreak affected Chireta severely. People used ivy bush for physiological needs. The air stank in the community, when rain the water pushed the faeces to Chireta stream, where they fetched water. It was a severe health crisis.

The community, organized, cut every ivy bush, built and maintained clean latrines, and started using Certeza water purifier and boil water fetched from Chireta stream. Ever since, “We never had such cholera outbreaks again”, says Mr. Almeida.

 “In adult literacy people are taught to produce relevant community planning documents. For those who do not know how to read and write, they can describe their activities planning by drawing images. We made a community board were it is drawn up all areas of community planning of activities for the year. It is a learning that fits to all”, emphatically concludes Mr. Almeida.

In the development language it means using local knowledge for the community development.

 MAPUTO, Mozambique, April 2015 (LWF ) - Laurinda Ernesto Pessane is a living proof of gradual changes happening in the lives of ordinary citizens of Chireta, since LWF started working there.

A small scale farmer and merchant, this 47 years old mother of four plans to become a local jam saleswoman after being taught by LWF officers to produce it.

“They taught us how to do marula jam. When the marula season comes, every February, I do marula jam. My neighbors enjoy it so much and say I should produce it to sell. I´ve been mastering it for the last three years. In the next seasons I will produce and sell it”, says Laurinda with laughter.

“This teaching is to produce and sell, and to teach others too”, adds Mrs. Pessane.

“They taught us so many farming techniques, to plant cassava and corn, to separate crops, to make canned tomatoes. I even know now that jug has 135 functions to cure diseases”, emphasizes.

. “I learnt that drying the leaves of jug to mix with food or its shell to pour in tea alleviates stomach pain, it washes the stomach. The jug seed is used as a remedy for newborns and alleviates the pains of women who just delivered. The jug flowers are a good remedy to clean the eyes. All of that we did not know, but now we know thanks to the Federation”, says Laurinda.    

Married to a small farmer and stocker, Laurinda Pessane is the chairperson of Chireta school council since 2012 and heads the agriculture group in the community development committee.

She was part of the agriculture group trained by LWF people in irrigation techniques and how to do nurseries. “We are pleased with Federation teaching”, concludes Mrs. Laurinda.