President of Ireland visits Concern's staff in Mozambique
Thursday, 15 June 2006
President of Ireland visits Concern's staff in Mozambique
President of Ireland, Mary McAleese, began an 11-day tour of southern Africa, last weekend. The itinerary included visits to Lesotho, Mozambique and Tanzania. The focus of the trip is to meet with Heads of State and to observe Irish-funded aid projects. Irish NGO staff have been invited to meet with the President during her visits.
On learning of the death of C. J. Haughey, former Taoiseach (Irish Prime Minister), Mary McAleese decided to cut short her trip and return to Ireland to attend the State funeral. She will continue her tour in southern Africa, this weekend.
On Wednesday evening, Concern staff in Mozambique made a presentation to the President explaining the work and it is doing on the ground. This includes HIV&AIDS training and assisting in education programmes.
Concern’s Work in Mozambique
Concern is almost unique among the international organisations in Mozambique in focussing on working with the poorest people in the most isolated and deprived areas in Mozambique. While many other organisations work with the Government of Mozambique at the National or even Provincial level and other non-government organisations work with communities, Concern has developed a niche where it supports government at the district level and supports the communities that interact with government at that level.
Concern supports communities to ‘knock on the door’ of government at the same time as it supports government to ‘open the door’. While there are significant funds flowing into Mozambique from the various international organisations, much of it does not see its way down to the ground to helping the poorest people.
This is not because the money disappears along the way but because the institutional capacity of the government structures is so weak that without direct support at the low levels of government they effectively do not function. Concern helps by providing training and information to the government officials at district level in the areas of education and district planning while at the same time making sure HIV/Aids is highlighted in all areas of the work. Concern also helps the communities in a similar way to know their rights and to be empowered to help themselves.
Examples of the difference that Concern interventions have made:
- In 2003, a community asked the government to build a Health Centre. Two years later nothing had happened. In 2005 the government had as a priority, the building of a Police station. The community then, through their local Committee (which had been supported by Concern), in consultation with government, managed to postpone the building of the police station in favour of the Health Centre.
- In another district, a community used their recently acquired knowledge of land law (through Concern), to negotiate with a private enterprise producing tobacco on the community’s land to use a percentage of the profit to build a school for the local children.
- A community benefiting from an adult literacy programme wanted to enrol their children in these classes, since the primary school was very far for the children to go on their own. The school management body from the primary school (on which the parents were represented), lobbied with the District Education authority and the classes were registered as annexes to the primary school, allowing those children to proceed with classes officially.
- A community group took the initiative and mobilized the entire community to provide social and material support for orphans and vulnerable children whose parents had either died of Aids related illnesses or were chronically ill.
- In one district there is a lot of construction and many construction workers who attract young girls with the money they earn. The community group is now implementing awareness raising activities both for the construction workers and the young girls.
