Mozambique

Three out of every four people in Mozambique live on less than US$1.25 a day and four out of every ten children under five have so little to eat that they are severely malnourished. More than half of the country's 21 million people are under 18, and more than 1.4 million children are orphans.

  • We’re helping 79,850 children affected by flooding
  • We’re providing school kits to more than 1,000 orphans and vulnerable children
  • We’ve registered 1,745 children so they’re eligible for state support

Save the Children in Mozambique

We help more than 110,000 children, 49% of them girls, in Zambezia province, mainly in Morrumbala and Mopeia. We began working in Mozambique more than 22 years ago, in 1984. Then, we gave emergency aid to children and families displaced by the war and also helped rebuild the healthcare system.

We're helping children affected by HIV and AIDS

Half a million children have already been orphaned by AIDS. And the epidemic continues to devastate families. HIV prevalence is very high, at 16% nationally, and around 20% in the areas where we work.

We support 27 child welfare committees who provide practical help. They've helped get birth registration documents for 1,745 children in Morrumbala so they're eligible for government support. And they help vulnerable children and their families get treatment and care when they’re ill.

Photos from Mozambique

We're getting children back into school

We know that education helps break the poverty cycle. Many children drop out of school because they don’t have uniforms, books, pens and other basics they need every day. Or they have to earn money to support their families instead of going to school.

Our education programme benefited 418,226 children in 2008. We’re working to build new schools and to support the training of new teachers across Mozambique. We’re also establishing mobile libraries that include storybooks in local languages, to encourage children and members of their families to learn to read and write.

We're helping children affected by flooding

Last year, for the fourth consecutive year, the central region of the country was affected by heavy flooding. More than 150,000 people living along the Zambezi River were affected, many of them losing their homes. And more than 40,000 people were affected by Cyclone Jokwe, which swept along the coast of Nampula province, wreaking havoc and disruption.

We've helped 12,159 people directly affected by the cyclone by helping the emergency authorities to improve people's access to food and shelter. We’re also training staff from the Ministry of Education in how to minimise disruption to children’s schooling whenever an emergency occurs, and we’ve contributed to the development of a national education emergency preparedness plan.

In addition, through the National Food Security Secretariat, we're advocating for the use of cash transfers as an effective response to help vulnerable households cope in an emergency.

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