“There will always be a family that stays in your memory longer than others”

Everyone is important, everyone is worthy, and need the several Littles Gestures from Sponsors… from Donors… from Friends and naturally from all the ALG/UPG team in UK, Portugal, and Mozambique!

We cannot be indifferent to certain situations that come to our attention through our local partners, especially during our regular visits to the ground, and the “Williamo Family” in Chokwe is one of these cases.

Contrary to the general tendency of having the father of the family deceased, absent and/or unknown, Lucas, Maria, and Enoque have the good fortune of still having with them one parent, their FATHER with capital “F”.

Their mother Sonia, passed away 2 years ago, victim of AIDS a disease that afflicts so many Mozambican people. Since then, the father has been unwell but he was never seen by a doctor, or been to the hospital. With 32 years old he used to work in construction doing a bit of everything to provide for his family. In every job he managed to save a sack of cement and, little by little, he started to build the foundations of what is now his family home (see picture)

It is not possible to help everyone but emergency cases like this one makes us feel how every Little Gesture is truly a Great Help! This is the reason why we are here after 12 years - to help in situations of great vulnerability. The whole family showed signs of malnutrition, the father could barely stand but he never let the children go – and the children never let the father go either – the tenderness and love we witnessed was overwhelming.

We took them home where we had the opportunity to see how they lived … Immediately UPG Portugal took the responsibility of sponsoring the 3 children, we delivered some food and the father promised to look after his health.

The sponsoring of the two older brothers enabled them to start attending school on the following day under the SVP Sponsoring Programme. They receive a Monthly Basic Basket, school material and also have a daily meal at school under the After Class Support Programme.

On the following day we had good news – at dawn “Daddy” Williamo went to the Carmelo Hospital, managed by the Daughters of Charity Vincentian Sisters. After the check-up he was diagnosed with advanced HIV and began treatment. His frail and weak appearance and constant coughing were already revealing this possible condition.

The food, the guarantee of family support, and the medical treatment were certainly the trigger for the improvement we observed throughout this week regarding the family living conditions.

Khanimambo Cordeiro da Silva Family for accepting to support the Williamo Family with open arms and open heart.

Together we will continue to look after these children.

A lifetime’s journey

After taking her time to assimilate and absorb everything “godmother” (UPG Portugal Sponsor) Ju, who accompanied Anabela and Sonia to visit the projects in Mozambique, send us a summary.

A lifetime’s journey

Although it wasn’t a dream trip, this was a dream come true, which due to several circumstances only now was possible to achieve.

I’ve known a fair bit of the world, there are places I would like to come back to, but the trip to the inner and real Mozambique will stay with me forever.

When I embarked on this trip, although I had a fair idea of what was expecting me, but reality surpassed my imagination, on the positive and on the negative side. When I met my “goddaughter” Clarência, I was overwhelmed by mixed feelings – a massive joy for finally meeting her, and a heart-breaking sadness to see her living conditions.  

My other "goddaughter" – Cristina, although equally underprivileged and orphan, seemed happier.

In summary my goal was met and my dream came true. I’m thankful to ALG for allowing me to contribute with a small drop to the ocean of the ones in need. My blessings for your effort to reduce the suffering of that population.

Ana and Ricardo’s first impressions!

Ricardo’s first impression of Mozambique

Lixile!! 

When I arrived in Maputo the first feeling was of surprise. I felt as if I were in any other European airport, the only difference was the speed of movements and the dark and gleaming skins.  

This European feeling soon disappeared when we got in Hilário’s car and began to drive around Maputo. The traffic chaos, the colours, the scent of fuel, and the street vendors quickly carried me to other African memories. "This is Africa."  I said taking a deep breath and finally absorbing the African essence. The trip to Chokwe-City was very pleasant and was useful to understand the agricultural potential of this huge country, and how living could be so much easier for so many people.  There is a lot to do.  Chokwe-City – well there is not much to say –  a city lost in the middle of Africa; poverty, street kids, colours, dust, fruit (and everything else) markets, people and heat even though here this is considered the cold season... Ahaha! Rather curious are the signs of pseudo-richness in town: two gyms, a gas station and a small shop, similar to so many Portuguese shops.  

Now, the people, I’ll start with the one I spent more time with. Hilário seems to be an outsider, almost a Westerner, he talks fluidly about pretty much every subject. He’s friendly, sensitive and thoughtful. Hilário is an excellent PR. I want to, and I will have the opportunity of knowing him better. 

Always welcome, curious and helpful; the contacts with the Sisters, with the people at the Caritas residency, the technicians and the sponsored children have been extremely interesting. During the next few weeks I will have time to break the initial ice of politically correctness and really get to know these persons. 

Although at superficial level, like most African countries where I have been, I feel there is an excessive submission to the white “man” and I wish to change that, starting by their relationship with me. I believe African culture is one of the richest in the world and it is important for Africans to be aware of that and be proud of themselves and of the colour of their skin. 

I’ll be vigilant, and I have 6 weeks to perform “white” magic with my example. :) 

Hingabangani!

Ricardo 

Ricardo is volunteering for 6 weeks in Chokwe with our sister-charity UPG Portugal

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Ana finally arrives to Mozambique!

Q: What is your first impression of Mozambique?

Ana: It is my first time in Africa and I’m astonished with everything because it is so different from my day to day reality.

We arrived in the beginning of winter... temperatures vary between max. 30º and min. 20º. People are cold and wear scarfs and wool hats! 

Mulungos (white people in changana – local dialect) are a minority so the curious and surprised looks of everyone are quite obvious! The look of children in indescribably delightful J

Colours, scents, fruits, vegetables and the Mulandes (African people in changana) are magnificent to look at and to admire!

Thus, my first impression is of wonder for a country rich in resources and which still has not managed to create sustainable development conditions. 

Q: What do you think about the people with whom you’ve interacted?

Ana: The Sisters from SLM and SVP Schools, both sponsored by ALG, and all the “ anos” (the young boys or “little brothers” helpung) welcomed us very well and strengthened the positive energy and joy existing when facing the constant day-to-day challenges! This is so good and inspiring!

People’s reaction is, in general, reserved but when we interact or smile they quickly reply... making communication easier even though we don’t speak the local dialect changana.

Q: When they travel Portuguese people like to eat. How is the food in Mozambique?

Ana: The street market is amazing... it has everything, and when I mean everything I mean everything! In this market some people sell what they collected from their farming plots...  vegetables look great. Because I’m a vegetarian it has been easy to eat here and I have been eating delicious food :)

Q: What are your feelings/emotions at the moment?

Ana: To tell you the truth the feelings and emotions are profuse and sometimes confusing and contradictory. I think Africa will reinforce the idea that Living is to feel the moment, the now.

Khanimambo!!! (Thank you in changana)

Ana is volunteering for 6 weeks in Chokwe with our sister-charity UPG Portugal 

May: The month of the Family Huts returns!

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Sister Antónia’s delicious cookies recipe

Sister Antónia is our children’s mentor at SLM and she’s a gifted baker and crafter! Besides her friendliness and generosity, Sister Antónia bakes these delicious cookies that will please everyone and she teaches how to bake them in the culinary technical courses.

Today we share Sister Antónia’s delicious cookies recipe:

Ingredients:

·         ½ Kg wheat flour

·         ½ mug of sugar

·         2 eggs

·         1½ glass of water (not too large)

·         Zest of 2 lemons

·         2 spoons (soup spoons) baking powder

·         ½ mug of vegetable oil

Preparation:

Whisk the 2 eggs with the sugar, then add the water, the oil and mix well. Add the lemon zest, the baking powder and the flour.

Mix everything until homogeneous and let it rest in the bowl for 30 minutes to prove.

With the rolling pin roll the dough (always with flour on the working surface) and cut small squares and then cut a whole in the middle of the square.

Fry the squares until golden on both sides and soft inside. Remove with the slotted spoon and sprinkle with brown sugar.

Enjoy!

“A MOMENT TO SHINE” by Helder

Our Technician and Scholarship holder Hélder, supported by Cascais City Hall since 2013, keeps sending us heartfelt testimonials to thank all the help he has been receiving. Here’s another one:

"Hello

How are you?

Everything is ok with me, thank God! I’m writing this message to express my gratitude for your support. Not only it enables me to attend university, but with your help I’m acquiring a wider sense of the impact studies have on one’s life.

Things are quite simple when you are able to observe the world from a wider perspective and when you try to make the world a better place than it was before. When you try to share your experiences to make others see how important it is to contribute towards the construction of a modern society, free of the addictions that afflict young people all over the world.

Life is the great “MASTER” of all times, and despite being a late student and only learning when “IT” considers appropriate, I have learned many things that are worth sharing with others. Many say like father like son, nevertheless I think not all of us are as “alike” as the idiom states. I think life gives us all a “MOMENT TO SHINE”, and each one has the capacity of using it well or let it slip away.

People have the chance of helping others in need. Thus, since 2013 CASCAIS CITY HALL has been contributing immensely for making my life so different from my parents’ life, and from the lives of others surrounding me. But this does not mean that I cannot help them in return. On the 18th of April at SÃO TOMAS DE MOÇAMBIQUE UNIVERSITY, where I’m attending the 1st semester of the 4th year of Law, I was selected as the best student of my class. This allowed me to start my internship at the University facilities, providing assistance in matters related with domestic violence, land ownership conflicts and suicides.

On the other hand, we have A LITTLE GESTURE A GREAT HELP through which Cascais City Hall is able to help me on my learning journey. This organization has done everything to support the beneficiaries in a timely and efficient manner which is a noble and positive gesture.

For this reason and for other initiatives developed by ALG and CASCAIS CITY HALL, I hereby leave my heartfelt thank you, hoping that similar actions continue to help many others worldwide …

Thank you!

A big hug to all!

Hélder Machel"

Graça shows us how every Little Gesture counts!

The lovely Graça Sitoe was the first female graduate of ALG’s Uni Scholarship programme. In 2015 she graduated in Administration & Management and sent us news on her happier life this week.

Graça was a teacher at the SVP school in Chokwe and in 2012 asked ALG to support her studies at the University of Chokwe. She dreamed of graduating since she was young but was held back by the efforts of supporting a large household on her own. Now she is working in the public secondary school of Manjangue where she holds the important role of Head of School Office. Our team went to visit her in the new office where we were warmly greeted by her colleagues Arlindo Cossa and Emilio Langa and school headmistress Ana Jesus. Graca misses her child students and the joy of the classroom but her life is so much better. She is busy every day with her new responsibilities in school accountancy and payroll control. But best of all, is her salary increase: from 6.000 meticais to 24.000 (c.£312) which let her offer a much better quality of life to her 4 children.

Women disproportionately lack access to higher education in Mozambique with rates of only 3.73% in 2011, and lags behind other Sub-Saharan African countries in enrolment in STEM disciplines such as sciences, technology, engineering and maths*. Graca is the living proof of how a Little Gesture accelerates positive change and a huge source of pride for ALG! 

*from World Bank 2015

Little Gesture really changes EVERYTHING!

These have turned out to be the most different and touching “holidays" I ever had in my life!

My name is Jesuina and I joined UPG Portugal’s sponsorship programme 5 years ago. I am the proud “godmother” of two girls, one in Bungane and one in Nhancutse. Now that I am finally on the ground in Mozambique with Anabela, Head of Sponsoring and Operations at UPG Portugal, I have not yet left and already I feel the urge to return here!

Our arrival was lovely. While I came full of expectations in my heart, none of them have failed me so far. Yesterday I discovered the school of Sao Vicente Paulo and today Santa Luisa Marillac, where ALG has its two biggest individual programmes (Feeding and HIV centre). The smiles carried by these children, their constant hugs, make me be sure that a Little Gesture really changes EVERYTHING!

Warm Colours and Happy Faces in SVP

“Our day kicked off nice and early but we were so eager to get started we didn’t even need an alarm clock!

We took breakfast, know here as “mata-bicho” (kill-the-bug) and rushed to the SVP - Sao Vicente Paulo school, in Chokwé. There I finally had in front of my eyes the warm colours of the places and the happy faces of the people I communicate with everyday: Mano (“young brother”) Hilario, Sister Alice, Mamã (“mummy’) Erma, Mano Donaldo, …

I knew in this trip to Mozambique [as part of ALG’s sister charity UPG Portugal], I would meet people that would touch me deeply and whose lives I would like to keep following forever. It would also make so much more sense of the work we do daily...

Today I share the story of Darcia, who was a UPG Sponsored child and is now 20 years old. She learnt how to read in the UPG After Class and she's now supporting in SVP pre-school! Darcia's dream is to keep studying.

She lives with her grandmother (who's too old to live on her own) and she is a precious help to this elderly lady. The family is very proud of her!

It was a day full of hugs, Kanhimambos (‘thank yous”) and lots of tenderness around! We had lunch at the house of the Vicentine Sisters, our Local Partners in SVP that filled our HEARTS and our bellies too!

Chokwé is much more that I imagined, it is smiles, it is colours, it is smells and images…

Tomorrow we are off to the SLM School in Manjague. Till tomorrow!”

Sonia Martins, Sponsoring Assistant, UPG Portugal, on her first visit to the ground.

Joana C’s trip to ALG Mozambique continues full of emotions…

The bank holiday yesterday was helpful to digest a bit the emotions of the last few days. However I was sorry for wasting an entire day of my short visit. Yesterday it was a celebration day - the day of the Mozambican woman - and there were celebrations in the main squares of several towns / villages like the ones I briefly witnessed in Bilene, 30km from Chokwe.

Friday started with rain again but it was fortunately over by the time we arrived with Mano Hilario at the Santa Luisa de Marillac (SLM) School in Manjangue.

The Sisters Antónia e Sidónia gave us a warm welcome. The Culinary Course of Sister Antónia, part of the ALG sponsored Technical Courses in the school, was just about to start - today was the day of the fried pastries that looked very much alike the Portuguese "filhoses”.

While Sister Antónia and the students prepared the dough, we visited the Vegetable Hut of the school. It had rained at last (although not much!) and a few students were working on the land. I enjoyed in particular the banana trees which were growing there very timidly due to the lack of rain.

One of the highlights of the day was the moment when I saw the new School Canteen almost done! The indoor part will be finalised soon but it was very rewarding to imagine the canteen full of children having their daily meals.

Sister Sidónia guided us to the HIV Day Center where we spent some time with the infected children. On Fridays the schedule is flexible so this morning they were watching cartoons and playing games. The table was ready for the lunch that was to be served in a short while.

We returned to the school playground and went to see the culinary course again. There were some pastries ready and many others to cook. A few of the students had just left to sell the pastries. Sister Antónia told us that today there were not baking bread due to the rain. However on Wednesday the bread was very good and was sold very quickly.

The younger students were already queuing for lunch in the playground when we met Orcidio, the young ALG local technician, in the room where he does all the admin work for ALG and UPG Portugal, including all the individual data on the 120 Sponsored children under the Portuguese charity’s programme such as the student marks that will be shared with their respective UPG sponsors.

As we did not want to disturb Orcidio's task, we left the room and I witnessed from a distance the lunch distribution under the School Feeding programme, the largest single project supported by ALG. Small groups of students got their meals in their green plastic plates and sat under the trees jointly with other students to have lunch. This was one of the unforgettable memories that I will keep in mind from this visit.

And just like this we spent almost 4 hours (it felt like much less!) in the school. And even then we have not visited the After-Class support classroom which had ended while we were discovering and talking around the school.

This afternoon the sisters were to visit the family huts of some students and other children in need as it is customary every Friday afternoon. We said goodbye but were sorry for not being able to wait for the return of Sister Flora, the school headmaster. However Isaurinha was already expecting us in Chokwe.

Uni Scholarship student Isaurinha is one of the students of High Institute of the Gaza Province who has been granted a scholarship sponsored by ALG. She is on the second year of the Nutrition degree and she lives in Chokwe in the house of the Vicentine sisters. Last year, at the time of my 30th anniversary, I decided to kindly ask all my friends for a small contribution to finance Isaurinha's degree. Everyone contributed above the expectations therefore ALG is now financing her tuition fees and part of the accommodation costs. Unfortunately we did not have much time to chat with Isaurinha as her classes were about to start. However it was enough to remind her that her commitment and dedication will be critical for her to complete her degree. We also added that we would be very proud should she become the first woman to graduate under the ALG scholarship. 

We said goodbye with a big smile from Isaurinha at the entrance of the High Institute after having significantly reduced her daily journey with a ride. We were very disappointed with the poor access conditions that every student has to face to arrive to the newly built High Institute in Chokwe - we believe each student takes around an hour of walking to reach the institute by foot!