Mozambique

Though its brutal, drawn-out civil war ended more than a decade ago, Mozambique still bears the marks of the conflict’s atrocities in its overwhelming lack of infrastructure and economic development. Most of the country still survives through subsistence agriculture, completely dependant upon irregular rains and commodity prices. Food shortages are a constant reality across the country.

Most communities are underdeveloped and very poor, and continue to suffer the additional social damage of one of the world’s worst HIV/AIDS and orphan crises.

In 2003 Hands at Work began working in the central Mozambican community of Gondola, 120 km west of the coastal city Beira. Gondola is a rural setting, but located on a major trucking route called the Beira corridor, leading from Beira inland to Zimbabwe, making it a flash point for HIV transmission. Subsequent work has mobilised churches in communities all along the strategic corridor and into Zimbabwe. Work has also expanded north into Nampula province in northeastern Mozambique, and future expansion is planned along another trucking route, the Tete corridor, leading north into Malawi.

It Was God’s Plan for Me

“Germena Ricado was 6 years old when her father died, leaving her mother to care for her and her 4 year old brother, Alexandre. “It was sad for us to lose our father,” Germena says. “It was difficult. No one was helping us, and my mother worked very hard in the fields to provide food for us. We did not have any money and many times we went to bed hungry. Without a father in the house we did not feel safe and were scared other people would abuse us.

”The family lived many years that way. Then in 2009, when Germena was 14, “God finally answered our prayers,” she says. Local care workers from Rubatano Home Based Care (HBC) came to help. “They give us food, school supplies and soap,” she says. “They visit us and check up on us. Now everything is easier. We are not hungry anymore.”

One of those care workers is Rosa Ernesto, who has been caring for vulnerable children and patients in Gondola with Rubatano HBC since 2003. When she began volunteering, she had just lost her husband and was alone with 5 children. Though she had hardship in her own life, she says she knew she was being called to serve others poorer than herself. “I had the strong feeling in my heart that this is God’s plan for me,” Rosa says.

It was also part of God’s plan for Germena’s family. “We thank God for the people who came and are helping us,” Germena says. “My mother is much happier now because a big burden was lifted off her shoulders.” Germena now attends Grade 7.