MOZAMBIQUE
CONTEXT
Over the past two years, the northern province of Cabo Delgado in Mozambique has been affected by violent insurgent activity, a devastating cyclone and severe flooding with many districts inaccessible for humanitarian assistance. This has caused increased levels of food insecurity, malnutrition and an outbreak of cholera.
Within this context it is our ambition to work with internally displaced persons (IDP) and host communities to safely return children to school, with inclusive learning environments and provision of psychosocial support for students and teachers, while also improving the quality of education they are receiving. Alongside strengthening protection mechanisms through community networks, we will also integrate resilience building and disaster risk reduction strategies into our programming to mitigate the impacts when crises occur. As the security situation continues to deteriorate we are leveraging our experience working in North East Nigeria, formerly controlled by Boko Haram, to introduce conflict prevention strategies by working directly with communities. This obviously includes prioritizing the needs and concerns of local communities affected by violence.
RESPONDING TO THE MOZAMBIQUE INSURGENCY
Since starting our work in October 2019 Street Child has built a strong relationship with the UN Office of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) and provincial departments of education, gender, children and social affairs. We are active members of the Education and Protection clusters, and gender-based violence and child protection sub-clusters. We have contributed to cyclone recovery by rehabilitating a block of three classrooms and providing learning and teaching materials, using locally sourced materials, in an elementary school serving more than 1,000 students. Working with teachers and members of the school council, we have also delivered training in psychosocial support, child protection and disaster risk reduction, with support to the school council to develop a basic school emergency plan and wider community advocacy around disaster risk reduction.
COVID-19 PREVENTION AND PROTECTION
Our COVID-19 response has seen the delivery of door-to-door prevention messaging to over 44,000 individuals, with the provision of handwashing stations in five communities and hygiene supplies to 2,500 households. We continue to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic through engagement with community leaders and distribution of COVID-19 information and hygiene supplies to 2,000 households in five IDP reception centers, alongside targeting markets and market leaders to implement adequate preventive measures for both workers and customers.
