GENERAL
It has been 6 months since we sent the last newsletter. Unfortunately the Festival d’Arte did not take place due to COVID-19. However, the wall is now completely finished, thanks to the donation of Rotary Amersfoort, with a beautiful gate in it, where the idea is alive to paint beautiful murals on it during the next festival. The vegetable gardens have been replanted and are doing relatively well. Now we have to wait for the rain.
To take extra measures against the Corona virus, water taps have been installed at all buildings and sufficient soap has been provided. We are also kept well informed by our new support and anchor in Mozambique, Suzanne, about recent developments, also related to Corona.
MATERNIDADE & COMMUNITY CENTER
Despite today’s complicated health situation, the maternidade still has 1 delivery per day and 5 twins were born in the last
3 months. Thanks to ultrasound, complicated pregnancies are detected in time and sent to better equipped hospitals.
Regular meetings are held in the outer circle at the Community Center. Consultation, information about Corona, and also mother and child meetings about, for example, nutrition.
Licinia is responsible for handing out the masks during these meetings. Some of the masks are already worn out by frequent washing and must be renewed; -. Furthermore, the rules regarding hand washing and keeping social distance are well enforced.
Two sewing machines have arrived and since then one of the tailors is occupying them permanently. At first he made products for the museum and for the foundation, but now he also teaches women in the village to sew.
It took some time to get official permission to teach small groups at the Community Center, but eventually we succeeded. In addition to sewing lessons, English, French and Portuguese lessons are now taught 5 days a week. There are 3 groups per day; the youngest children in the morning, teenagers in the afternoon and adults in the evening.
The intention was to do this until the end of the year, but after the parent meeting of 3 weeks ago, the question has arisen whether we will please also want to continue in 2021. After a month of lessons, in September, the children are already greeting in English ;-), Hello how are you!
Many thanks to Suzanne for all her efforts.
We are going to see what else we can do in the new year. We are thinking of; geography, history, biology, culture, handicraft, etc. Perhaps we will call on volunteers to organize workshops, but we will certainly also look at Mozambican teachers without work.
Escolinha
There is little news about the escolinha. The schools are still closed. Because the children have not been educated for almost a year, we now hand out homework for the older children once a week. The parents collect it from the escolinha and return it a week later.
CULTURE
As you have already read, we have had to decide not to let the Festival d’Arte take place this year due to Covid19. Fortunately, we are still in full consultation and we have the time to put the finishing touches the programme. In the Netherlands, new small works of art are being produced with capulana fabric for the museum shop in Mozambique. In Mozambique itself, the tailor makes mouth masks, sun hats and bags.
