What I'm doing

In 2007, through a contact at ALMA (Angola London Mozambique Association), I visited a village called Cobue on the lakeshore of Mozambique just across from Malawi. I stayed there for 3 weeks shadowing the village’s “Equipa de Vida” (Teams of Life). The Diocese of Niassa had set up these teams, comprised of local people, in all the villages in the Diocese, which covers the entire Northern region of Mozambique. The teams were made up of volunteers from the villages who were given training particularly on HIV/AIDS awareness and drug administration and they cared for ill people in the villages. In Cobue they also maintained a garden, where the food grown was given to the sick and elderly. While we were there we taught English to some of the team and some of the older children and we also organized games for the orphans in the village every morning. In the afternoons we would then work with the Equipa, building latrines, gathering firewood, working in the garden and mending mosquito nets. We then also briefly visited the town of Lichinga where the Diocese is based.

Since my visit 2 years ago the number of Equipas de Vida has grown to 195 (some very strong, some quite weak, a lot that are average). These Equipas de Vida (with nearly 4000 volunteers—themselves quite poor, generally) began in response to HIV and with the motto that in the face of HIV, there still is LIFE. Those who are living with HIV can make decisions that affirm life and their lives can also be supported by their neighbours. Those who are not living with HIV can make decisions and take action to stay HIV-negative. The Diocese believes that there is a growing culture of LIFE and that a momentum is building towards HIV prevention and support of those living with HIV.

The diocese have decided in the last two years that it doesn’t really work to talk about HIV in isolation from other community/social issues as they’re so interconnected at the community level. They are also working hard to ensure that both the church leaders AND the community leaders (teachers, chiefs, nurses) are very involved in their work. They believe that it should be the COMMUNITY who decides what their priorities should be, and not the diocesan staff. This is crucial for ownership and for appropriateness. They have therefore become actively involved in coordinating, in each community, a community mobilization participatory needs assessment. One of the staff members works with a community (chiefs, teachers, church leaders, Equipa de Vida members, people living with HIV) for two days, helping them identify their resources and their priority issues and then helping them make an action plan. If they have the capacity to help them achieve their plan, they’ll do this.

They’ve done these community mobilization activities for about 150 communities, and about 30 of them have mentioned lack of water as their biggest problem. My role while I am in Mozambique will be to help the Diocese of Niassa and the communities figure out how to respond to these needs. In some cases the problem is because of a broken well or pump. In other cases people have been lazy and just not dug a well. In other cases, the ground is too rocky. Whatever the situation, the Diocesan technical team sees it not as their problem to solve (that is not a very sustainable solution). Our job is to help the community realize what it is they can do to solve their own problem.

So that's what I'll be doing. I'm flying out on the 9th November and will hopefully arrive in Lichinga by the end of the 11th. My friend Ed's parents have very kindly said they'll put me up in Blantyre, Malawi on my way out which is making me a lot less nervous about the journey. I have a lot to do before then though for example, order some books about water supply!