In the province of Cabo Delgado, in the north of Mozambico, due to climate changes, in the last few years there has been an increase of people living in a condition of extreme poverty and diseases connected to malnutrition. The infrastructures, especially hospitals and schools, are inadequate to face people’s needs.
To support local institutions and organisations in facing the situation we have worked (January 2019-March 2020) at “ EM REGIÃO” project to improve the management of basic services of the municipality of Pemba. The town is twined to the Italian city Reggio Emilia, which is one of the promoters of the project with AVSI as coordinator, and the contribute of the region Emilia-Romagna.
We worked in the field of education, nutrition and professional education for people with disability, in addition to the re-qualification of public structures, like schools and hospitals: around 36700 people can already benefit of different actions coordinated by Casa da Bahia, the international relations office and the decentralized cooperation of the town of Pemba.
Young people with disabilities have been involved in courses of professional education, to increase their competences and to develop their personal skills, acquiring more possibilities of involvement in the society and in the job organization.
Through artistic laboratories we involve children in painting, theatre, music and other practical activities focused on the importance of hygiene and healthy nutrition and on the respect of the environment. Teachers have been trained on nutrition topic too. Four school gardens have been launched, an activity that has allowed children to learn how to cultivate some vegetables with techniques that they can use in their families’ gardens too.
As Abdul Camal, AVSI coordinator project says, “ to face the nutrition crisis in the province of Cabo Delgado, our attention has been focused on the strengthening of the capacity of the agricultural provincial district staff ”. Avsi Mozambico has organised education courses on how to process and conserve of food . Among the activities implemented to prevent and fight the malnutrition spread in the region, the AVSI staff has organised an exhibition in the school of the rural district of Muchara, where the poorest women in fertile age or mothers have taken part in practical and theoretical lessons on the nutrition characteristics of food. They have learnt how to combine different type of food and how to make healthy and nutritive meals for their children, starting from fruits and products from their territory.