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MOZAMBIQUE

General Background

Mozambique, simply Moz. to most who know her, stretches in a leisurely arch for nearly 1500 miles along Africa's east coast. On a world map you would look for it across from the huge island of Madagascar.

Moz is extraordinarily fertile ground for humanitarian work because the need is so great. First colonial exploitation and then civil war and recently floods have all but destroyed the nation's economy and infrastructure. They are building now, but the way is difficult.

In the meantime, many children abandoned or orphaned need help. They can not wait for a more favorable economy or some vague, brighter tomorrow.

Orphans Unlimited presently serves in the northeastern part of the country - as you can see on the detailed map here. This part of Mozambique is so remote that even the relief agencies have no presence. The need is great.

Our Work

Bread of Life Program Balama, Cabo Delgado Province has many different needs and furnishes the following programs.

Care for Orphans
Care for infants needing milk formula because their mother's died in childbirth, or whose mother's failed to make breast milk
Care for widows or abandoned women with severely malnourished or handicapped children
Care for teenagers who are disadvantaged and need help to get an education past 5th grade (where the village school stops).

The program brings the love of Jesus to these kids in a spiritually practical way. Our Sunday Schools teaches them about Jesus. The program is are growing rapidly, and we are expanding facilities to house additional children. Over 450 kids are cared for in the present program. Social Services continues to ask for our assistance.

It's hard to believe but only $360 a year is needed to care for a child in our program. How can we do it so inexpensively? By keeping the kids in their culture, building with local materials, and eating nutritious diets from local foods.

Why is help needed? Mozambique has no government funds to help these kids, and until Jesus sent us. The death rate was beyond belief! If a mother died and the baby was still a milk dependent infant, it's only chance of survival was if a woman volunteered to wet nursed it. No milk formula existed in this area. Few women produce enough breast milk for 2 babies, as evidenced by the 9 sets of twins and 1 set of triplets in our program.

The Bread of Life program in Balama, northern Mozambique, is our main base. These kids have no hope of survival without our weekly food give out. Massive floods in Feb. 2001 and a severe drought in 2002 wiped out the corn and bean fields that supplied these families with food. The women we assist have been either widowed or abandoned, leaving them to "make do" with local foods such as leaves, roots, and wild fruit. Many died before the news of our program reached their villages.

We don't just hand out food. Our prime objective is educating the mothers in proper child care, nutrition and agriculture. We provide them with a hoe and good seed so they can start over. It takes a full year of assistance since they must have one planting year with good harvest before they are self sufficient again. In 2006 we hope to start a better education program that will offer the mothers a chance to learn proper sanitation for the home, how to cook better meals, as well as reading and writing, and a basic job skill so they can support their family. All children in our program are enrolled in school as education is the key to defeating poverty.