After last year’s paralysis, 2021 began with the arrival of eight Universal Civil Service volunteers from AGAPE and PASSI, our partner. The kids landed in the midst of the Christmas holidays and this gave them time to adapt to the new reality in which they would live for 10 months, before starting their respective projects. Unfortunately, January and February were months of lockdown in Mozambique and this slowed down the start of activities, but this did not demoralize them: they were so eager to do so that they started tutoring small groups of children from the Mafalala neighborhood. Children were the category most affected by the pandemic, in fact with schools and meeting spaces closed their only options were to stay at home or on the street. For this reason, even the study time proposed by our kids became a special occasion in which they participated with enthusiasm.

Finally, in March, the projects started again. Keziah and Damiano, as musicians, began to accompany our music therapists Soares and Omar, in the workshops both in the neighborhood Mafalala and in the Mahotas Rehabilitation Center. Inside this Center managed by the Hospital Sisters, Damiano and Michela M. are also supporting the sisters in the management of patients, the first through work in the large garden that is located in the structure and with craft workshops that stimulate the creativity and manual skills of the patients, the second as a psychologist. The latter, together with the PASSI volunteers, Claudia and Laura, also collaborates with the Mozambican Association Ca-paz, which deals with domestic violence in some neighborhoods on the outskirts of the city. The problem of domestic violence is very serious in Mozambique, especially in the poorest neighborhoods: through awareness-raising, “good neighborliness” but also legal and administrative assistance, the volunteers of this incredible organization try to tackle the problem on all fronts and our volunteers are trying to make their skills available to further improve the work that is being carried out. Among them, Michela C., an expert in cinema and video making, is trying her hand at creating a documentary that tells the mission of this organization, the challenges, the results and above all the stories of the beneficiaries.

Even the ice cream shop in Ressano Garcia has started producing at full speed again! The guys have never completely stopped but now they have finally extended their distribution to the city of Maputo which opens them up to a new market and new possibilities. According to the project, with costs covered, all the proceeds from the ice cream shop will be partly invested to maintain the high quality of the products and add new ones, while partly will go to create a fund for scholarships for the students we support at university, who will be eight this year. The Study for me, study for you, study for us project gives us great confidence: we see more and more of these students becoming the women and men of the future of Mozambique, they feel the opportunity they have and do not want to waste it. And this year we should see the first degrees!

Inside the neighborhood Mafalala, our Elena has started with drama therapy activities, accompanied by Claudia and Silvia, a volunteer from last year who has returned for a new experience. It is precisely the increasingly close relationship with this historic neighborhood of Maputo that has pushed us this year to embark on a new adventure: relying on the Machaka Association, our partner for more than 3 years, which has been working in this neighborhood for more than 20, we have decided to start supporting some of the children who live there. This year there will only be six, but we would like to reach ten by next year. The thing that pleases us most is that it was the children of the Association, our volunteers and scholarship recipients, who asked us to start the distance support program in their neighborhood too, to help the children with whom they do activities, who they see every day, and for whom they would like to do more. This SAD program is in addition to the one that continues with the Scalabriniane Sisters of Ressano Garcia, with the children and young people who were guests inside the Center until 2018 and who have now been reintegrated into their families.

Finally, Sofia, a PASSI volunteer and tourism expert, has just started working to create a solidarity tourism route in this great country: our dream would be to be able to let our donors experience the projects first-hand, without whom they would not have been possible… We look forward to seeing you in 2022!