Global Poverty Monitor

[After the drive to Tete.] We then left for the hotels. They boys were staying in a different hotel than the girls – more luxurious apparently, but they had a bug problem and we didn’t. We were in a rest house of sorts – in the middle of Tete city, with a big staircase and long corridors of rooms. Each room had two single beds, a TV (that we couldn’t get to work, I don’t know if the others had more luck!) and an air conditioner. There was one bathroom for the whole corridor (about 6 or 7 double rooms) and quite a few toilets, some of which were locked.

We looked in some shops in Tete city; a dress shop, a material shop, and then walked around. It was pretty dangerous – the most unsafe I have felt on the whole trip. Unfortunately about half of us were wearing World Vision t-shirts, and some had their Australian flag tattoos visible, even on the face, so we did draw some attention. The difference in atmosphere between the city and rural areas is amazing. Although I suppose that could be because the only places we really went in rural Tete were trips that had been organized in our honour, with our group representing World Vision. Tete city for a tourist is really no different to Maputo as a tourist – you want to keep your wits about you and stay in a group.

Next we went to the Marara Center, which is a school with a boarding house for students who live too far away. This was very impressive, and it was great to see just how far they had come for a new school in a new ADP. The school was very much focused on teaching its students skills that they can use as a career in their later life. They had gardens and orchards already established in some very rich soil. They offered us lemons to taste, and they were fully grown and very healthy and tasty. We saw they sewing room, where they had two very old-fashioned, clunky sewing machines. On the floor was an enormous pile of corn, taking up most of the room. This was their harvest from last year, which will then be separated from the husks, ground up, and made into porridge. We looked at some sewing and embroidery that the students had done, and it really was very good, and very professional.

We were allowed to see inside the dormitories, and unfortunately this area was the least developed. The first dormitory we saw slept around 30, but had only two straw mats on the floor, and a small bed with a straw mat. Serena asked how much the mats were to buy, and Alex replied that they were around $AU1.50. We all decided to pool some money to give to the school personally (i.e. not on behalf of World Vision). I gave 500’000 Mtc, which is around $27AU. Most of us gave around the same amount. The headmaster of the school was a quiet, gentle man, who seemed genuinely happy to have us there and proud of his school and the students. He was also very grateful and happy to receive the money, and agreed with Serena when she said we would like to see more beds and sewing supplies bought with the money, but that he could use it for some other purpose if he thought it better.

We packed up the cars and drove to the new ADP we have heard about – the Marara ADP. We went to the administrative post and met the chief of the post, who welcomed us and showed us around the offices. We drove to the local primary school, called the Cachembe Primary School. Many students were assembled in one classroom, and they greeted us with a song when we arrived. Then they started some prayers – some group prayers in song, and then a chance for everyone to pray by themselves.

The room burst into noise, with everyone raising their arms in the air and praying our loud. It was very interesting to watch, and also nice to see that the people were also encouraged to pray for whatever they want, rather than only participating in group prayer as we have been seeing. We sang our usual collection of songs for them, and then got all of the smaller children to come up the front and join in the movements of the hokey pokey. It was interesting to see that a lot of the people there were teenagers, and some were young children. The choir group was there, as well as all the teachers from the school. The children who had done the hokey pokey with us then put on a song and dance, where they stood in a circle and clapped and sang together, with one little girl singing a song. They took it in turns to come into the middle of the circle and dance. It was great to watch – it was apparently unrehearsed and the kids seemed to be really enjoying themselves. The group left their usual assortment of gifts for the school, and then we left.

We packed up our bags and suitcases and brought them all downstairs. My luggage felt a lot lighter and much easier to pack, even though the only things that were gone were the presents (most of them anyway) and the chocolates and most of the muesli bars. I also decided to leave my pillow at the Lodge, since it was really gross having it in the bed with all the bugs. We had breakfast, our last breakfast at the Lodge, and we were picked up by World Vision. It was raining, the first rain I have seen since we’ve been here. I expected a lot of rain, since it is the wet season here in Mozambique, but so far its only rained the once.

After we left the health center we hung around outside for a while, talking to the nurses and the guides. Serena and I went to a fence at the edge of the Health Center, and gave toys to the kids on the other side. There were three little boys and one teenage boy, and we gave them all toy cars and rope watches.

I was meant to be with the others listening to the nurses speak, but I needed something light to do to take my mind off the situation inside the hospital. I went for a walk around all of the people standing and sitting around outside the hospital, and gave out little bouncy balls. It always amazes me that adults want the toys as much as children do. I ended up giving bouncy balls to most of the kids and the adults, some of which were old women. I suppose its not that surprising, considering that for someone who has basically nothing, anything that is new and clean and colorful and fun would be interesting to them. Also, most toys aren’t aimed solely at children – which is why I had so much fun buying the toys to take on the study tour.

Part of me thinks that the emotions of these women were too far gone to even know what was happening, but the other part of me likens these women to someone in a coma, who registers nothing but knows exactly what was going on. From the little I heard of these women’s conditions (the nurse had been explaining the whole time but I hadn’t been paying attention), they had malaria and most had HIV/AIDS. There were no mental conditions that I heard of, so this means that their mental function was probably fine, and that they themselves have removed themselves from their surroundings.

The final woman was very old, and painfully thin. She was lying on a matters on the floor, in a very uncomfortable-looking position, with sheets strewn messily over her. At first I thought she was asleep, but when I looked at her face I found that her eyes were open and she had a look of terror mixed with extreme pain on her face. The look on that woman’s face is the most vivid image that I will take home with me from Africa.

I wanted to leave and not give her the bracelet, since its not exactly something that is going to make her better or make her life any more comfortable, but I didn’t leave, for two reasons. The first is that the chance that a new bracelet on her skeleton of a wrist could bring her a moments happiness or pride is enough to justify doing it. The second is that if my only reason for not doing it was my own fear, then I don’t deserve to be on this study tour. So I knelt on the floor in front of her, and watched as her eyed registered even more fear as she looked at me. I showed her the bracelet, and then touched what was left of her wrist to show her where the bracelet was to go. I motioned for her to left up her arm slightly off the mattress, so I could put the bracelet on, and I know that she tried to, but she didn’t have the energy or the ability to do it. Everyone had been watching what was going on, and the nurse came up behind me at this stage and lifted up the woman’s arm while I fastened the bracelet. I touched her arm again, and she just looked at me with almost the same expression, but I could see that a little bit of the fear had gone.

The third woman was lying on a bed in a far corner, away from the other three. The nurse didn’t go near her, and I hoped she didn’t have any communicable diseases, so I approached her slowly, knowing that someone would stop me if this were true. I did the same for her, showing her the bracelet and then outing it on her wrist. She then whispered ‘thankyou’, in English. The atmosphere of the room was so sad and depressing that it was like no one should ever speak above a whisper. I felt very intrusive in the room, that we should to have been there and that we were violating these women at their most vulnerable. I wonder if they are so used to this kind of treatment that they have forced themselves to become removed from their bodies.

The next room was the worst thing I’ve seen on this whole study trip. There were four women in the room – three on beds, and one on a mattress on the floor. I don’t really know how to describe these women. It was the look in their eyes that affected me the most. The first woman we saw was lying on her back with a sheet covering her lower body and nothing covering her upper body at all. Her eyes were open, but she was just staring straight up to the ceiling, and didn’t seem to register that we were there at all.

This was the malaria wing, but the guide told us that these women were likely to have HIV/AIDS as well. Serena gently stroked this woman’s face, yet again this did not register on her face. We moved on to the next woman, who was lying on her stomach and propping herself up on her forearms. She had a small baby lying next to her, that she seemed to take no notice of. While the nurse was explaining her condition, I looked back at the first woman, and found that her eyes had changed focus and she was looking at me. It instantly reminded me of a photo in my baby album of Aunty Kitty, very ill, sitting in a chair and me sitting her to her, about 18 months or 2 years old. I am smiling for the camera, but Aunty Kitty is just looking at me. Mum told me that she used to like me to sit near her, and that she liked to look at me, since by then she could not speak. The fact that this woman brought back that memory really freaked me out.

I wasn’t listening to what the nurse was saying anyway, so I moved away from the group and after looking through my bag, found four bracelets that I had brought. I went to the second woman and offered it to her, and then traced my finger around her wrist and pointed to my watch and bracelet. I find it much easier to communicate in silence with gestures sometimes, especially in delicate situations like this, rather than trying to use my small Portuguese vocabulary or getting someone to translate. She understood what I was saying, and tried to put it on herself, but needed help, so I undid the clasp and put it on her wrist. I then went back to the first woman and showed her the bracelet. She looked at it and looked at me, but made no move to take it. I put it on the bed next to her, but then Serena came up behind me and said I would need to put it in her hand, so I undid it and put it on her wrist like I had done with the first woman. Again she just looked at me with a wide-eyed stare.

Hi everyone,

Thanks for the fantastic support over the past weeks. I’ve really appreciated the interest so far, and it fantastic to see a number of returning visitors.

Just thought I’d pause here and give you a road-map of where I plan to head with this blog in the coming months. By the way, if there is anything in particular you’d like to see more (or less!) of, please leave a comment or send me a message.

We’re more than halfway through the Mozambique travel journal. After that, I plan to mix it up a little. I’ll post some of the travel journal from my latest trip to South Africa, where I help build houses and worked with AIDs patients and children in orphanages.

I’ll also post a story I wrote (with LOTS of photos) about the day I met my sponsored child.

There will also be an interview that I did for Australian Dolly magazine. I’ve got the original, unedited verbatim interview - and the (severely edited and shortened!) version that appeared in the magazine in May 2006.

I’m looking forward to reading all of your comments and messages!

Stacey

We then traveled to Chitima and went to the Chitima Health Center. Once again I had no idea what to expect. The only other similar hospital I have seen is the HIV/AIDS day hospital in Maputo, but I had no idea if a general hospital in Chitima would be similar. When we got there, I noticed that there were large groups of people sitting to standing around outside the hospital, some with small children and babies, others without. We were then told that these people wait outside the hospital because it is too hot for them inside. Serena and I walked amongst the group, and played the ever-popular photo game with a group of adult women. Then we went inside. We saw a doctor’s office, just like the GP’s office that we are used to in Australia, where patients are assessed. We saw a maternity ward, which had two young women, each with a baby.

I gave each of the women a necklace, and they both wanted to wear them straight away. I took their photos, and they both seemed happy. Obviously were there for a reason – something wrong with their babies, but they seemed hopeful.

Next we went to the World Vision office and Alex showed us around, including things like how the filing system works, and the forms that need to be filled out when a child is visited by a World Vision worker. The visit to then World Vision office was one of the most interesting visits that we have made on the whole trip so far, because I am very interested in the internal workings and the procedures involved with child sponsorship. Sacrificio explained at length the progress involved when a sponsor makes a GN (gift notification), i.e. a gift of money to the child’s family and community. I was really interested in this part, because of the two donations that I have made for Kantet’s community. The way that Sacrificio explained it was exactly the way it had worked for me both time – everything from the letters and notification that the sponsor receives at different times, to the way in which the money is proportioned between the child’s family and the child’s community. He even explained how the World Vision worker will discuss with the child’s family how the money is to be best spent. I found all of this fascinating, and it really amazes me the way in which the regional World Vision workers really do care about the sponsored children. I know that sounds so clichéd, but I had imagined regional offices to be all a bunch of administration and paperwork like a lot of Australia offices are (not just Australian World Vision offices, but any kind), where the employees only work there because it is a job, not due to any passion of their own. But from what I’ve seen in the rural offices in Mozambique, the employees take a lot of time and care with every task they have before them. I’ve seen some of the letters that Alex translates to sponsors, and the care that he takes with his work. I applaud World Vision for insisting on employing only local people to work in rural offices, rather than allowing Australians to move to foreign countries and take control of the offices. I think that only a person who has lived in poverty themselves could really invest that amount of time and care into every child sponsorship task.

Our next stop was a primary school in Songo. Here we looked at some classrooms that are in the process of being constructed, and then went into a year 1 class that ad started only a few days earlier. When children start school here in year 1, it is often the first time that the child has met the Portuguese language. The teacher told us that she has spent the first few days teaching them how to greet her and their classmates.

We sang some of our Australian songs for them – Home Among the Gumtrees and Hokey Pokey, which they seemed to enjoy. They then joined us in another round of the hokey pokey, copying the actions that we were doing. We then blew up some balls and a globe for them, and a giant kangaroo, which some kids were terrified of. We went to the office of the headmistress, and presented her with a large array of gifts.

Will then asked the District Administrator what three things he would like to achieve in the next 5 years. After considering the question for a moment, the District Administrator said that he would like to achieve greater food security for the people; increase access to school for all school-age people; and the further the prevention of sickness, including sending prevention messages about HIV/AIDS.

There is only one secondary school in the district. In Chitima town there us a school with a night shift which teaches secondary school. While this is a great and innovative idea, it does mean that there are some children who work all day in the fields and then go to school at night time. There was a request in 2004 for another secondary school, but this request has not been approved as yet. There are around 400 students out of school because there are not enough places in the night school.

While the meeting was very long (due to the constant yet necessary translating) and uncomfortable with so many people in very hard seats in a small room, I also found it to be very useful, in that it clarified a lot of points for me, and it explained the point of view of the government, who is interested in the same development ideas of World Vision but is a completely separate entity.

After we were picked up, our first stop was the District Administrator’s office in Songo. We met with Manuel Greper, who was the acting District Administrator since the official District Administrator was on leave. After we were welcomed, the District Administrator explained the structure of the Tete province. In the province of Tete, there are 13 districts, of which Cahora Bassa is one. Where we were – the District Administrator’s office – is the headquarters of the district. He also explained that districts are divided into administrative posts, which are further divided into localities, which are then finally divided into villages. The Cahora Bassa district has 3 administrative posts.

The District Administrator then went on to tell us some facts about the Cahora Bassa and the way in which World Vision works in the area. In 1997, a census was taken and the Cahora Bassa was found to have 57’675 people, of which approximately 21’000 were of school-going age. There are 44 primary schools in the district, schools which offer grades 1-5. However there are only 6 schools which offer grades 6 and 7. the schools have organized centers where the needy children can be reached. World Vision has helped with school fees and school kits for these children, and office stationary for the teachers. At some times, World Vision also gives food assistance to some schools. World Vision also provides health care to those students, even outside of school. Further, World Vision has trained community volunteers to work with these kids after school and keep them busy – organizing things like soccer teams or Sunday school. If a child needed medical attention outside that which is available locally, World Vision will pay for children to travel to Tete or even Maputo if necessary. In 2005 the government decided that children would no longer have to pay school fees for grades 1-7.

There are 6 dams available, but all are small and are used for animals and vegetate growing only. 15 wells have been built, one with a borehole hand pump. World Vision has been involved in school construction, but in some cases there is no well in the area, and children wither have to bring their own water to school for the day, or walk to the nearest well. It has been discussed that every time a school is built, a borehole well should be built too. It has also been discussed that a borehole well should be constructed near the cemetery, since many children go there to visit their parents, and the water could be used for drinking and also for flowers.

The government has a rule that no NGO can build a borehole unless the community has contributed part of the cost. This practice is designed to discourage the ‘handout mentality’, so that if a community really wants something, they must do what they can in order to get it. For instance, is a community wants piped water, they must dig the trenches for the pipes themselves.

Large projects such as a school or a borehole are controlled by the government of Tete. District governments draw up a plan of their needs, and submit it to the central office of Tete. The provincial government then compiles these needs and sends them to the central government in Maputo. The central government receives plans from all of the provinces, and then draws up a budget for each province. This practice is performed each fiscal year.