Escolinha (kindergarten)
The food at the Escolinha, with help of the donation from MoSagri and the flourishing vegetable garden, has gotten much better, healthier and more varied.
The playing ground is starting to look good and is almost finished, supported by the generous donation of Family van Gijzen. A lot of children are already playing, despite it not being finished yet. However, the enthusiastic children couldn’t be stopped! The slide still has to be finished, sand from the beach has to cover the ground and a new seesaw will be placed. We would like to expand the playground with another two swings and more outdoor toys. We are thinking about playing cars, balls and maybe tricycles.
There are new toys in the classrooms and the library. We would like to expand this as well with books, puzzles and games for the children’s social and intellectual development. In the community centre, workshops are being held for adults and there will be English classes of course. For the little ones, once a month the school organises a movie afternoon, thanks to a donation from Brazil with 20 dvd’s in Portuguese. It goes without saying that we will continue to source donations and materials. The school was also painted.
We are now looking at the best ways to continue to support the first group of 6- and 7-year olds that will go from the Escolinha to the regular basis education. The idea would be to, besides the regular education, organise various activities to maintain the accomplished level of education from the Escolinha. Of course without harming or conflicting the regular and current education in place.
Health
Casa Mãe Espera
After various discussions with the local authorities we have decided to use the existing drawings that are known at the regional government. They have been submitted and afterwards, in cooperation with the contractor, we will start the construction. We have found a very nice location, close to the maternidade, which the local authorities have appointed to us.
Thanks to all the efforts of dr. Jan Nugteren, the project for the acquisition of the ultrasound machine has progressed significantly since our last update. We have chosen a simple, portable and very functional machine.
By early February 2018, the first ultrasound machine will go to Mozambique, together with a medicine student: Thijs. He will support and train the local nurses and will assist in the set-up, all together with Foundation Memoz from Nijmegen.
Once more, a good amount of medicines was delivered, for which everyone is very grateful.
It remains our goal to develop and build a good and well-functioning mother and child centre, with a maternidade, a casa mãe espera, a pediatric department and an escolinha.
Culture
Festival d’Arte 2018 – from 13th until 24th of August.
A lot of work is done to organise the second Festival d’Arte in 2018. There are new contacts made with young local artists and we have had various discussions with the director of the museum on Ilha de Mozambique. Of course, we are still looking for support and sponsors, for example for materials, flight tickets for artists, places to stay, etc. Most of the materials will be used for the workshop with the young children. It would be great if we can also add a music programme to the festival and expand the festival accordingly. To realise this, we have gotten help from Moira Forjaz, Additionally, Anna Fabrello committed to helping out again for this second festival after the big success last year. We are of course very happy and proud to have this professional and enthusiastic support. The preliminary program will be released soon.
For everyone who wants to attend the festival (it will be great!), we are going to set-up a nice programme. More information to follow.
An impression from the Festival d”Arte 2016:
Ofcourse, we will also continue to support Nuhi, our discovered talent of 2016! Nuhi is also making postcards now and sells these to tourists to fund her school education.
Christmas Action
In Mozambique, we are organising the production of a variety of beautiful and original products, made by local artists to support the local economy. All future profits will go to our projects in Mozambique. As Christmas is approaching, I’m sure everyone is still looking for new and creative Christmas gifts ideas, but also supports a great charity. See some examples below.
We also have various products that would fit perfectly in any company’s Christmas gifts/box/packages, like Moringa products and shoppers. If interested, please e-mail us and we will get back to you as soon as possible.
It goes without saying that we can still use every support and any (Christmas) donation is more than welcome!
