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CWS announces expanding development programs in Southern Africa
A CWS-supported literacy program in Angola.
Photo: Tammi Mott/CWS
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In Mozambique, on September 11, a whole community trades its arms for a school.
MAPUTO, MOZAMBIQUE--To accommodate expanding health, economic development and educational programs in Southern Africa, international humanitarian agency Church World Service (CWS) announces the opening of its new regional office in Maputo, Mozambique.
The effort, which will put special focus on the needs of women and children and is initially supporting programs in Mozambique, Malawi and Angola, is also being directed by a woman.
From Maputo, Church World Service Southern Africa Regional Coordinator Tammi Mott says, "Our intention is to strengthen civil society, and here, as in other regions of Africa, women play a vital role at all levels of civil society and family."
Mott says a ceremony she attended on September 11 in the community of Chinyangwanie in Mozambique’s Moamba District summed up the potential to impact people there on a community-wide basis.
"It was an arms collection and destruction ceremony," she said, "part of a program that's been around since the end of the war in Mozambique--the Transforming Arms Into Plowshares Program of our partner the Christian Council of Mozambique (CCM)." But Mott says the September 11 ceremony took the program to new levels, involving a whole community, not just individuals.
Mott said Church World Service will be working with CCM and the communities, as the arms collection program expands into this broader phase, "no longer just working with individuals to trade arms for tools like sewing machines, hoes and bikes, but now giving incentives to whole communities as a group," she said.
Mozambique community trades arms for school.
"At the Moamba ceremony, the community chose peace. They collectively turned in their arms and in return received support for school construction. This was a joint effort between the Christian Council of Mozambique and the local government."
From her perspective, Mott said, "It was a great way to spend September 11--with a community that chose peace over fear, over vengeance, over anger, over war."
Church World Service is now exploring ways with partner CCM to support "ploughshares" communities through projects such "Water for Life" development programs--to build water resources, skills and water self-sufficiency on a continent where more than a third of its people lack access to clean, safe water.
According to Church World Service Deputy Director Rick Augsburger, in addition to its "Water for Life" programs, other programs are already underway in the region that were successfully launched elsewhere in Africa, including:
- CWS's Giving Hope program that works to empower orphans and vulnerable children affected by HIV/AIDS--which develops self-sufficiency among orphans and child-headed households through community-building "OVC" working groups in which young members assist one another with household responsibilities and income generation.
The program began in Rwanda through the Young Women's Christian Association of Rwanda (YWCA), a Church World Service lead partner there, and has spread to three other East African countries--Tanzania, Uganda and Kenya--and six other partner organizations.
- The Literacy for Women's Solidarity and Social Change program in Angola--community-based literacy classes throughout ten provinces in the post-war country, aimed at delivering the literacy, social education and livelihood skills needed to participate in the post-conflict society.
- Mozambique's PEDRA program for girls' education and protection (Pedra is Portuguese for "stone")--a program that encourages girls to stay in school and provides education to help lower the incidence of HIV infection.
Church World Service's regional expansion and Southern Africa office supports the agency’s longtime commitment to Africa and its current major Africa Initiative.
CWS's Augsburger says, "Our Mozambique center also augments and balances the agency's work through its East Africa regional office in Nairobi, Kenya, and our immigration and refugee assistance services through the Joint Voluntary Agency (JVA) in Nairobi and Overseas Processing Entity (OPE) in Accra, Ghana.
Church World Service is responsible for processing all refugee resettlement applications from sub-Saharan Africa through a cooperative agreement with the U.S. government. The global relief, development, and refugee assistance agency, formed 60 years ago following World War II, works in partnership in some 80 countries including the U.S.
Media Contact:
Lesley Crosson, CWS/New York, 212-870-2676;
Jan Dragin, 781-925-1526;
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