Since 2018, AGAPE has supported the Hospital Sisters in the difficult task of assisting, rehabilitating and making as autonomous as possible people affected by physical disabilities, but mainly mental disabilities, in the Mahotas neighborhood in Maputo. Currently, they provide assistance to over 150 families and welcome every day into the Center almost 50 patients, including children, teenagers and adults.

This facility in Maputo is almost unique in the city, and for this reason, it plays a very important role for the most vulnerable families who have children or relatives with disabilities. The Mahotas Psychosocial Rehabilitation Center carries out rehabilitation programs for children, young people and adults, who are followed in all aspects, from clinical and nursing care, to psychological and spiritual. The activities carried out include psychomotor stimulation, physiotherapy, speech therapy, occupational therapy and we emphasize the development of each person’s skills, to allow them to do more possible autonomy and greater integration in the family and community.

The sisters are very present in the area to identify families with members who have mental health and psychological problems: these are often hidden from the outside world, either due to shame or due to difficulties in managing them. For this reason, the Center carries out awareness-raising and training actions in the field of mental health promotion and psychiatry. From the beginning, the training has been one of the main concerns in the daily work of the Sisters in Mahotas. Despite the efforts made in recent year to fight against the stigma associated with mental illness, this is still a reality. On one side, you have a lack of literacy in mental health, on the other, you have negative effects from the Covid 19 pandemic: an increase in cases of depression, suicide attempts and worsening of chronic diseases. Training, in addition to helping spread awareness of our services, is also a way to involve informal caregivers in the therapeutic process of the person being assisted, providing them with the tools to respond more assertively to the situation.

In addition, the Sisters also help a group of teenagers to attend high school: they pay registration, uniforms, and school supplies. Unfortunately, some of them need extra support due to the significant discontinuity in education, mainly during the pandemic years, because it’s difficult for them to understand some subjects: the sisters contribute financially to tutoring in exchange for help in the garden on Saturday.

The older kids are directed towards vocational training courses: the lack of employment is significant, and often young people, when they see themselves without prospects for the future, they turn to the world of drugs with all the consequences that come with it. At the end of the training, they are assisted in finding internships or starting small businesses.

In 2023, the Mozambican volunteers and the Civil Service will finally return to their activities with the patients of the Center. The pandemic is not over but with the right precautions it will be possible to return to providing this important support.