Mozambique - Overview 

Capital: Maputo
Area: 799,380 km²
Population: 19.4 million (July 2005)
Ethnic groups: Shangaan, Chokwe, Manyika, Sena, Makua and others
Official language(s): Portuguese
Religion(s): indigenous beliefs, Christians, Muslims
Currency: 1 metical = 100 centavos

SOS-Kinderdorf International decided to become active in Mozambique in 1986 because of the civil war that had been raging there for 16 years. Tete, the capital of the same named province, in the northeast of the county, was chosen as location for the first SOS Children's Village. The cornerstone was laid in 1987. Because of the lack of infrastructure in the vicinity, an SOS Kindergarten, an SOS Hermann Gmeiner Primary and Secondary School, a small clinic, a farm and a bakery were also built. In August 1989 a government agreement was signed between SOS-Kinderdorf International and the People's Republic of Mozambique, as it was known at that time.

The First Lady, Marcelina Chissano, had taken over the patronage of SOS Children's Villages Mozambique and three years later requested that another SOS Children's Village be built. This time it was to be in Maputo, about seven kilometres from the centre. This project also included a number of ancillary facilities right from the start. A third SOS Children's Village followed in 1999 in Pemba, the capital of the Cabo Delgado Province, 2,000 kilometres northeast of Maputo.

 

This region had been very badly affected by the civil war. In July 2002 the first SOS Social Centre was opened in Pemba. The aim of this facility is to support and strengthen socially and economically disadvantaged families, avoiding a break down of the family and to enable the children to grow up in a secure environment. To achieve this, SOS Children’s Villages works directly with families and communities to empower them to effectively protect and care for their children, in cooperation with local authorities and other service providers.

Over the years, SOS Children's Villages Mozambique has organised numerous SOS Emergency Relief Programmes. The first was started in 1988 when a severe food shortage threatened a famine. The villages surrounding the SOS Children's Village Tete were given aid. During the 1990's five more aid programmes were carried out whereby mainly undernourished children and their mothers, pregnant women and old people were given food and basic medical care. When tropical storms devastated the Gaza and Maputo provinces in February 2000, SOS Children's Village Maputo distributed medicines to families in the neighbourhood and ensured a supply of drinking water. With the generous assistance of an English architect, Nick Peters, and a group of volunteers, it was possible to build 16 simple houses in which families, who had taken in orphans, could live.

 

The on-going need by parentless children for being helped, as well as by families in need for being given support, was the motivation behind the decision taken on starting further programmes in Mozambique. As a result, a fifth SOS Children's Village opened its gates in summer 2011 in Chimoio (at the western border of the country), while another SOS Children's Village has been under construction since March 2011 near the city of Beira, on the eastern coast of the country.

At present, there are five SOS Children's Villages in Mozambique, three SOS Youth Facilities, five SOS Kindergartens, four SOS Hermann Gmeiner Schools, one SOS Mother and Staff Training Centre and seven SOS Social Centres. One SOS Children's Village is under construction.