Orphanage

The construction of the orphanage has also come to an end. The last window shutters are being placed and the last parts of the floors getting its cement. The waiting is for Ska Mouza the donator and founder, if she wants to continue with the project of supporting all the orphans of Cabaceira Pequena. We have a plan ready to start, with a diferent program for all different ages of the orphans in schooling, housing, nutricion and clothing. In September I received information that she is still willing to continue and will come back to me with more detailed information.
The whole community is praying for the day that her aswer will arrive.

Since the orphanage is right at the other side of the primairy school, I don't worry about the building not being used for a good purpose and have all faith that the right solution will come along.

Primairy school second phase

At this moment the second phase is well on its way. The roof has been painted and the desks are being made. All is going very fast and we definitely think that before the end of the school year all will be ready for the next one. No more sitting in the shade of the trees. The children will be able to sit on proper desks under a roof, with enough daylight through the windows, or when raining and closed windows or at night, with electicity lights. No more reasons to stay at home.... Let's see if this will motivate all children to come to school!

Community meeting

Since we started with the community fund, the communication with the community have been a problem. The appointed leaders of the community don't have full support of the members as being the representatives to make decisions about the way to spend the money. Since we have the objection to do the projects that as much as possible members agree on within the community, and no so much as what we or a few people of the community think is the most necessary.

 So last year, like we have written down before in this blog, we organized a meeting with the whole community in which we presented a list with all the projects the leaders and other esteemed member of the community could think of. During the meeting we asked the community to add new projects and to choose the ones that they thought were the most necessary.

Last year they choose for electricity in the hospital and the roof of the school.

First we realized electricity in the hospital and then we started with the roof of the school and continued till the school was finished in a way it is possible to use.
In August the leaders presented a new plan with all new alterations to the school and since this would mean the use of all the money of the foundation, we thought it wise to organize a meeting first.

Organized at time that all the men would be back from the Mosques and from fishing, almost all men and many women came to the meeting.

    

 

Again we presented the list with the projects: 1. Uniforms for the football teams 2. Extension of the delivery room of the hospital 3. Motorbike with a trailer for the hospital 4. Medicine cabinet for the hospital 5. Latrines 6. Cleaning of the village 7. Playground for the school 8. Pump for the well 9. Benches for the village and the market 10. More children to go the secondary school in Mossuril 11. Fishing boat cooperation to fish at the deep sea 12. Bridge to the main land.

The community first choice is to finish the school in the complete way; with desks, paint and electricity.

And their second choice to the surprise of all leaders, representatives and me was the bridge to the main land. Of course I started to explain that since the costs of this project would extent the amount available in the foundation this could take up to 10 years to complete. They all said they didn’t mind. The connection to the main land, also during high tide was for them a mayor issue. So we decided that I would at least investigate the possibilities and costs involved and would come back with this information next year.

Primairy school first phase

The construction of the primairy school is at the end of the first phase. We agreed with the community to build the school in the traditional way with bamboo sticks, sand and cement with a roof from congrated iron. Together with doors and windows we expected to have this phase of the school ready in September 2013. But then the representatives of the community started to ask me for more: painting of the roof, the walls, desks, electricity and a extra foundation wall around the school. Since this would finish the rest of the money in the community foundation fund, we first wanted to hear from the rest of the community if this is also what they wanted and together with the representatives of the community we agreed to organize a meeting for the whole of the community.

Mossuril Students

All 5 other students at the secudairy school visited me at the lodge in August as well. They all are doing well and the director is telling us that it looks like all will pass to the next class. We were all very happy to hear this and they asked us for a new notebook and a set of coloring pensils, which we gave them the following week. We wish them well the rest of this school year and are looking forward to hearing more possive stories about them soon!

Rabia

I have had a meeting with Rabia in August to talk about her future. Rabia started working at the lodge in June, but we were not happy with the way she performed. She didn't show any will to work nor will to learn, which is not good when on a internship.
Also we suspected her to be pregnant and asked the director of the new school we selected for her in Nampula if this could be a problem. Since more girls at the school are with a child, he didn't see any objections with her starting on the first of January.
We had a meeting with her and her perants and proposed the following. She could continue her internship at the lodge, but would not be paid. Her payment would be saved till the moment she would start her new school. When she would not start, we would use her reserved and paid for place at the school for an other student and she would just receive her outstanding salary.
Also she would work only in the laundry now, under the supervision of the chef and guided by one of the laundry girls. When her work performance and will would not improve, all would stop. Internship and education.
Both her perants and Rabia, accepted the offer and Rabia is proving at the moment to work hard and with a proper will to work. Her pregnancy will give a problem in the future she around the time she should start her school, she is at the end of her pregnancy and she must show a proper will to start her studies after the delivery.... Let's see....

Empowering of the women of Cabaceira Pequena

Finally we got some movement in the lodge. Even without having to fire people because of incompetence. Now staff is being employed by other hotels. This is very possive sign to see that Mozambique is developing and trained staff in necessary in more locations.
With getting more vacancies at the lodge, more oppurtunities start to rise for other people within Cabaceira Pequena. Although we have tried looking for more staff before, especially women, we didn't get a lot of applications.
But something has changed in the last year. We don't know what, but now the women break free from their husbands. The husbands don't see any possibilities for working at the lodge, since they don't know enough Portuguese, but they do see the other families getting richer. Even the families where the women work at the lodge and the husband continues fishing. And although the women make money, they still stay with their husbands...
So now they let their wifes also apply for jobs. And having just one vacancy at the laundry, 10 women show up, all with mega great potential. Speaking Portuguese, educated, willing to work... we felt sorry we didn't have more vacancies!
Instead of sending them away after selecting one, we started training the other ones as well. Some as a back up team in the kitchen One as a back up for the restaurant. Some as back up for the laundry. And all of them are being trained to do massages. So we have a big back up team there. Also we started with teaching them English.
We almost can't wait for more people to leave and get starting with these empowered women!

House for elderly/teachers

The house we bought for the poor elderly without any family to sustain them, but who didn't want to move in, is now occupied by a teacher. When teacher are being transferred to a new village to teach, they don't get facilities from the government. They get small wages and have to live far away from their houses and families. The communitie should provide housing or they rent a room of part of a house from one of the villagers. Now that the house we have bought is available, the house will be used for teachers or other government service people that are their to work and develop the community. Without having to pay rent.
And even so... no teachers wanted to live there in the beginning. For them it was too far from the school (5 min walk). They wanted to live next to the school. At the moment a new teacher liked the quiet location and she is happyly living there.
For us a good lesson, that just buying a house and giving housing for free is not always what they want. Even the most poorest. Although it is for free, it must contain all requested facilities and the right location, otherwise they rather pay....

The girls

When we did the exam with all the children of the 7th grade of the primairy school, two girls had the best results of the whole class Rabia and Muahasane. Sadly Muahasane directly quit the project because she got married with a man from Nacala. Rabia left the project because when applying for the secondairy school in Mossuril, she was not allowed to wear a headscarf. She refused and went back to her home. She didn't feel welcome.

In May we invited her for chat at the lodge. We heard that although she had plans to get married, she decided not to and wasn't doing anything at that time. Since we are convinced of her intelligence and possibilties, we asked her what her plans were for the furture. She didn't really have any.

So we offered her 2 possibilities: 1. start working at the lodge as an internship. Making half the salary and start working at all the departments to see which would fit the best. In the mean time learn English. 2. start at an other secondairy school in Nampula or Ilha de Moçambique, where there are no problems with wearing a headscarf. Officially it is illegal to prohibit the students to wear it, but when allowed although you are adviced not to, doesn't make you feel welcome.

First Rabia directly decided to start working at the lodge. That would bring in money directly and she could start building her future in Cabaceira. We adviced her to think about it a few day, talk it over with her family and friends. We hoped they would convince her that the secondairy school would be a good investment for her future and she could be a teacher or a nurse....

After a few days she came back and she changed her mind! She wants to go to school in Nampula. So now they are investigating the different schools in Nampula. It looks like she choose this one. Let's hope this time all will go well!! Fingers crossed...

Future of the orphanage

And what about the next phase when the orphanage is ready. What will happen with the building? What are the next steps in the project?

Fist we will do an investigation of the orphans that live in Cabaceira Pequena with family or friends. We think about 30 children will have this status. Each individual will be supported depending on there age and needs in the area of cloths, food, housing and education. For each subject a proper plan shall be made. The current guardians shall be interviewed at together with them a plan shall be made. This will never with hold giving money, but it will always be in direct support of the child, like buying 3 times a year a proper set of cloths, paying for the studies and giving them at least one proper meal a day.

For the education this will depend on their age. For the young children the idea is to start a nursery school in the building. The orphans will be the first to attent and other young children of Cabaceira will be added with a maximum of 15 per group.

For the children who are in the age of going to the primairy school, the project will provide in all the facilities necesarry to attent and monitor their progress at the school. After graduation at the primairy school the orphans will get the same help as the current children who attent the secondairy school.

Together with Ska Mouza we will find the proper way to attend to the orphans she wants to help.

Orphanage

Almost getting to an end. The constuction of the orphanage. It has not been an easy job... Everything is made locally as much as possible. The concrete blocks were made at the village, the sand was taken by tractor from the mainland (to prevent erosion on the Cabaceira Island), all the material was brought in by sailboats and all the workers are from Cabaceira Pequena to keep the money as much as possible within the community...

What is missing at the moment are the doors and windows, but they are ready at the workshop of the carpenter. They just need to be put in. And the finishing of the floors. This takes again more sand then was expected and needs more help from the tractor, which is broken at the moment... but it will finish!! We expect in August to have the inauguration.



Primairy school

The primairy school is almost ready and it has not been an easy job to organize it. The first intention and request was only to donate the roof. Since the whole community choose this project as the first thing they wanted to finish at there village, we bought all material and paid the carpenter. Within 4 weeks this was done.

Then everything stopped. So I started knocking on doors of the Director, the leaders of the community and the Director of Education of the district. Nobody gave me a good anwer. Everybody thought that the community would contribute together with bringing in sand, water and stones to finish the school in the traditional way, but nobody in the village felt like doing this.

Then the leaders came back to me: can you buy us cement and cal (limestone powder) to make the walls more strong. Ok, so with traditional boats I brought in cement from Ilha and the cal was bought within the village. After that... nothing happend.

Then I started asking questions again. When are you going to continue? We need a constuctor to build it. Ok, I will negociate witht he contructor and then he can start. Then one day the community started collecting sand, rocks and water. One day... so the constructor could start with building, but after 3 days all material collected by the villagers was finished. And then .... nothing happend.

Again I started asking questions: when are you going to continue? No answer. Then came the request: can we use the tractor to bring in sand and stones. I said the tractor is very expensive, it would be better to hire women to do this job and they will be paid money for food for their family. They didn't agree, but gave in and we started with this.

After a request for windows and doors, which we bought on Ilha and having doors stolen again by members of the community, we are now almost at the end of the job of finishing the school. We hope the inauguration can be in August.

Ofcourse a lot more need to be done before it will be a proper school. One of the things is the furniture, but first we need to sit down again with the community, maybe they have other project that are more important for them.

Best Students

The boys are doing very well. With visiting the secundairy school during the half year evaluation of the project the Director of the school was full of compliments about the results and the will of the boys to learn. They were even selected for the school football team and invited for a match in Nampula.
They even don't want to go back the weekends to Cabaceira Pequena. When offered a lift, they refused and prefered to stay in Mossuril with their friends.

Only sad story was the 1st of June. At this special holiday for all the children of Mozambique, the children are treated with gifts, new cloths and nice food. At around 15.00 they go to their school to show their new cloths and bring something for the teacher (money or some food). Normally they get a nice lunch at the school as well.

The boys from Cabaceira left the school before this day. They didn't have anything to offer the Director. I was not informed about this tradition...So the boys were expelled from school for a day. Their parents also didn't provide them with anything. Next year we know...

Selected children

I have selected the following children and this was their story:

1. Rábia Monarene is 18 years old and passed the exam very well. She is the daughter of the best bricklayer of Cabaceira Pequena and her mother sometimes works for us in the laundry (I found out when I invited her parents) They are very motived and willing to send her to school and even without the money I think she would have gone, but now they are even more motivated

2 and 3.. Chali Amisse and Aburhas Abdul, They are 16 and 17 years of age and because I only looked at the results when I selected them, I was quite surprised to see they were brothers and also that they were the most dominated cheeky ones in class. When they arrived with their father I was even more surprised because I know him from being a representative of the school and a very serious man. I said to them that they should not only get proper results, but also change their behaviour otherwise I could not keep them into the program and their father was just stimulating them to listen well to me and convincing me he tries every day to get them to school, but they just do their own thing... let’s see how they will do.

 

 

4. The smartest girl was Muahasane Ibraimo she is 15 years old and passed without problems. Only thing: she didn’t show up. The leader of the community talked to her parents and they decided that she was to be married and not allowed to go.... so we substituted her for the other girl with the best results, but who didn’t pass all questions Aziza Ali Fundi. Her father turned out to be one of the leaders of the community and told me that many boys have been asked to marry her, but she refused because she wants to study.

5. Donsan Salimo 19 years old, very shy boy, son of a very serious tailer of the village. Passed well and I am convinced that his parents are willing to support him all the way.

6. Ibraimo Anlawe, 18 years old, very shy bow as well, son of a fisherman and a mother that doesn’t speak one word of Portuguese. The father didn’t show up. He is very intelligent, but I am afraid that his father will be wanting to use him as a helper on the boat. I told the leader and the mother that if I would find out about this, I would send the authorities to talk to him about this. Let’s hope this helps. otherwise I think Ibraimo will be fine!

 

 

secundairy school

Various guest left money to support the children from Cabaceira Pequena that wanted to join the Secundairy school in Mossuril. In total we collected enough money to support 6 children.
With this information we went to the director of the primairy school and asked him if we could to an exam to select the best children.

He agreed and we made an exam in which we:
1. asked the children to read a small text (from my Portuguese lessons book, very easy...)
2. asked to children to write down their dreams for the future
3. asked them a simple calculation (ex 18*4)
4. asked them to solve the most simple question of an IQ test (multiple choice)

From the 16 children we did the exam with, only 4 passed the test. They could do everything, then we selected two next best ones.

 

 

Orphanage

After finishing the food project and the mosque project for the princess, we started with the orphanage in August. This was a less easy job.

First we found a carpenter and a constructor. They made a calculation of the materials needed and a quotation for the job. After the necesarry negotiations, we headed off.
First we decided to make our own concrete blocks. We bought a mould in Nampula and 500 bags of cement (each bag 50 kilos). They all came in by boat and are stored in a house nearby the construction site. The blocks are build in the garden of this house.

Sand is brought in by tractor from Cabaceira Grande, we didn't want to demage the dunes at Cabaceira Pequena. Water is brought in by women from the village.

The stones necessary for the foundation, came from the 13th century ruins in the village. These ruins are from former Arab houses made by coral rock. These rocks are now used for the orphanage....

The goals is to use as many things and people from the village as possible, since most of the money earned will be spend within the village and other people within the community will profit.

The construction is now well on it's way. Only thing missing is the roof.

House for the elderly

One of our guest were really impressed by the positivity of the people in the village and wanted to help with a donation. After seeing the list of projects, they selected the house for the elderly as their goal. In Cabaceira 4 old people are living without children to sustain them. They live together in a house under very bad conditions where rain can come in. Food they get from other people in the community and familiy. Hearing this story, the couple decided that a house would give them the possibility to live in good conditions the rest of their lifes.

After buying an existing house from the money they donated, we informed the famility that it would be available for them. Unfortunately the old people didn't want to move. Everybody was convinced this would be better for them, but they didn't agree.

 

We decided to use the house for an other project on the list. The wish to have a house for the community to put visitors of the mosks, teachers and nurses that are send here to work. We agreed with the leaders that they could use the house at will.

So far the house is still available. Although everybody in the community thought the house would contribute to the development of the community, so far, no succes. The house is in good quality and in good condition, but it is not in the centre of the village (that is 3 minutes walking). I think this is the reason they don't want to use it.

We will wait a little more and see if it will stay empty. Afterwards I will sell it again and use the money for the project the couple selected as a second option: supporting the children of Cabaceira to go to the secundaire school.

walls

After finishing the roof: silence... It bothered me to see that they didn't use the building. This way the money was spent in vain.
So I started to ask the director of the school why he didn't use it. The idea was that the community would all together contribute with putting in stones, and mix water and sand for the walls, but the community didn't feel like doing this. They were waiting for us to contribute more.
I informed them with spending more money on the school the other project would have less and they had to wait longer. So an other meeting was organized within the comminity and they decided that:
we should buy cement and lime and would pay the constructor. They would organize people to bring stones, water and sand.
So since we had save enough money again from all our guests for this investment, we bought the material, stored it safely and waited.....
Nothing. Weeks later: sms: we have started and the whole community is contributing. Great!!!
unfortunately just one day. The next day they asked us to pay for workers to do this.

The school is almost finished now.

The roof on the school

They wanted a roof from congregated iron... not the traditional palmleave or grass. Ok, your choice. But how do you want to install a roof when walls are missing. No problemo senhora. Please organize the roof.

So with the same procedure as the electricity we organized the roof. First we organized wooden poles fromt the bush. Hand sawed and very strong (110 x 3 metre long poles). They were transported to Chocas from where we took them with our tractor to Cabaceira. No trucks without 4x4 can arrive at the village.

Then the rest of the material was bought in the city of Nacala and transported by truck to Ilha de Moçambique and by traditional dhow to Cabaceira. The carpenter finished the job within a month.

So now we had a school from bamboo sticks without walls.

electricity in the clinic

This was an easy to realize job. We first find a Cabaceirian electrician. He made a list of material he needed according to the wishes of the head nurse. With the material list, we send somebody to Ilha de Moçambique for shopping and after the negociations with the electrician, things got started very quickly. Total costs: $330,-

But to get it connected to the main electricity line, was another thing. A form needed to be filled out and stamped by the director of the hospital in Mossuril. After this another $120,- needed to be paid to the electricity company to connect it. Luckely we had guests who were really concerned with realizing this and they made an extra donation to make sure the hospital was connected. Thanks Megan and John! Can you see the connecting line?

voting

After the respresentatives made the list, we invited the whole community to vote for the projects they wanted to do first. Almost unanamous everybody voted for the roof of the school. The other project which involved less money, was the electricity in the hospital and was voted second. We decided to start with realizing both.

selected projects

After the lodge was open for about a year, we had quite some money saved from all the guests staying and paying $2,- per person per night. Enough to start investigating what projects the community would want to do. One of the managers together with the respresentatives of the school, clinic, leaders and community made list with things they wanted to change or build.

The following list was concluded.

Donation projects to develop Cabaceira Pequena.
1	electricity for the clinic	material and electricien
2	roof for the school	material and carpenter
3	electricity for the primary school	material and electricien
4	furniture for the primary school	per 3 children
5	cultural centre	for old people, dance groups and artists
6	uniforms for 4 football team and 4 footballs	socks, shorts, Tshirts, ball for 4 teams, 10.000 each team
7	extention of the hospital	to extent the delivery room
8	motorbike with trailor for hospital	to transport sick people to the hospital
9	pre-school material	for the new pre-school
10	medicin cabinet and fridge for hospital	to store the medicins
11	3 public latrines	for sanitation
12	garbage collecting project	cleaning of the village by women of the village to help their dance group
13	playground for the primairy & pre-school	from local material
14	hand pump for well	to take the water out of the well
15	gate around cemetary and indication of grave	to protect the heritage
16	banches from cement in the village	for the population to meet on the street
	market from cement	for higiene and comfort
17	project of helping to go to secudairy school	per child to board in Mossuril per year
		to finish the secundairy school is 3 years
18	project of fishing at the deep sea and not at the reefs	buy fishing nets for deep sea
		boat for the fishing association at the deep sea
	house for the homeless elderly	4 elderly people without childeren

Distribution of food during ramadan for 100 poorest

After finilizing the list of the people receiving the donation, we started with the procurement of the food items.

First we made a shopping list to buy items for dinner for 100 people for 30 days and then we started to investigate what the costs for all the items would be. Finally we decided to make 30 packets of food which included:
25 kilos of rice
10 kilos of dried beans
30 coconuts
12 packets of powder for juice
5 cans of condenced milk
10 cans of tomato paste
5 litres of cooking oil
3 kilos of onions
3 kilos of potatoes

a donation of 500 meticais

This amount times 100 people...

Can you imagine buying these amounts times 100? That was a big truck full of food from Nampula and then a big job to carry it in to 4 boats and from 4 boats into the storage of the lodge (with low tide). All the Coral Lodge staff helped out and just before dark everything was stored. They money that was left, was shared between the 100 people.

During 3 days we took the food for 30/30/40 people to the entrance of the lodge where all the people were waiting with a ticket as proove they were entitle to receive it. All went very smoothly and the poor people of Cabaceira where really happy with the help of the princess.

list of 100 poorest people

When you ask the leaders of the mosques to give a list of the poorest people of the village, they don't feel a oblication to Allah to write down most poorest people first. They say it is writen in the Koran that first the leaders have the right to receive a part of the donation, before others. So their names where on top of the list and after that many of their family members and friends.

This was a great dissapointment to many people in Cabaceira and that's why we decided to select a new commision which involved some workers from the lodge, the leaders of the community, some other community members and me. Together we evaluated the list that was written by the mosque leaders. We took off all relatively rich and added the really poor, so finally a list was produced which was according to what we thought would be respresentable. To proof this to the community, we wrote all the names down for all to read and put it up on the market. This was not according to the will of the leaders of the mosque (and Allah according to them), so together with the leaders of the community we took it away and informed everybody which wanted to know who is on the list, to ask the workers of Coral Lodge.

We didn't get any complaints about the final list, even after the distribution of the food.

rehabilitation of the 4 mosques

The four mosques presented a list of necesarry items and workers that they needed, and we added the prices to make sure that the items asked for, where within budget. After little changes all items where bought in one trip to the city of Nacala, so transport costs where shared between all mosques as well.

After driving the material to Ilha de Moçambique, all was loaded into 4 traditional sailing boats and arrived at the village at night during high tide. The material was checked and handed over to the leaders of the mosques, responsible for the executing. Without discussion or other problems, all workers started with the rehabilitation jobs on all 4 mosques and after half a year, all mosques where finished within budget.

More projects from the princess

After finishing the mosque and distributing food for the poor during Ramadan, the princess wanted to do another project in Cabaceira Pequena. Her dream was to buid an orphanage and so after prooving that we had spent her money well, she asked us to make plans and calculations to build an orphanage.

After finishing the plans and emailing it to her, she invited me to present my plans in Abu Dhabi and give me a tour in her beautiful country. So that is where I went in June 2012. After the presentation, she donated money for the orphanage, rehabilitation of all the 4 mosques in Cabaceira Pequena and food for the 100 poorest during the whole month of Ramadan.

Since Ramadan was near after arriving back at the lodge, we started with making plans for that, together with the rehabilitation of the mosques. All leaders of the 4 mosques where invited and were asked to make a calculation with the money that was available for rehabilitation of the mosques and together present a list of the 100 poorest peope in Cabaceira Pequena.

Princess of Abu Dhabi

After visiting the village in Agust 2011 the Princess Sheika Mouza of Abu Dhabi fell in love with it and she wanted to help the poor people. Because of the month of Ramadan, the princess wanted first to help the community with food for the 150 poorest people of the village during the rest of the ramadan and also at the end of this month of fasting, giving them a donation..

So we organized to buy enough food for the resting 8 days of the ramadan and the rest of the money we divided between the 150 people who were selected to be mainly old people and orphans.

Beside the food, she wanted to renovate one of the 4 mosques. Since two the staff members are leaders in a new mosque that just had started building, I thought they should have the possibility to invite their head leaders to explain what would be needed to make it in to a proper mosque. She left us with the money and trust to make sure that all the money would be properly spent for the mosque.

So we made a proper investigation of what need to be done, bought the materials and negotiated with the builders to get it done a proper way. The mosque was ready in March 2012….

primairy school

We were shocked at first site of the primairy school that the community started building with the goverment money. We didn't know how much was given to the leaders, but the amount mentioned by the director of education of the district more would have been possible to do, then what we could see at that time.

They only wanted a roof.... so we ordered poles to be made in the bush. (trees are cut down by hand and sawed by hand into poles) and transported them to Ilha de Moçambique from where they arrived by boat to Cabaceira. Just before they arrived, we found out that more or our land was sold by the government, although the leaders promised us that that part would only be reserved for us... who can you trust... so we decided to stop all project to the community and stored the poles at the lodge till we had more security that the rest of our land would not be sold.

After finally organizing a meeting with the head of the district, he got fired that same day for fraude of community money, bad treament of his staff and having an afair with many wifes/daughters of his staff members... So we had to wait again till a new head was installed (a woman this time), our problems where clear to her and she had time to organize a meeting with the community and the management of the lodge to get to a proper agreement.

After the meeting and getting in writing that the rest of the land would be ours, we started with the construction of the roof of the primairy school. This was finished in Agust 2012...

first projects

After starting up the lodge for a year, we finally had a proper amount for the Cabaceira Pequena Fund to get started with a community project. With every guest paying $2,- per person per year and not having regular reservations yet, the fund didn't grow as quickly as especially the community was expecting and have had been regularly asked when we would finally get some things done.

With the leaders together with the goverment selling most part of our land, we didn't see them as the right partnes to be representatives of the community. Also the within the community many people did not trust their leaders as being responsible for filling their own pockets with other projects that started before us in the community (and because of that, failed to continue).

We decided to organize a meeting with the whole community and would let them decide on the project of their choice. We had made a list of projects with the representative of the primairy school, the clinic and the leaders and during the meeting we asked the people present to add any others. With the list complete they decided to start with putting electricity in the clinic and a roof on the new primairy school that they just started building with governement money.

First we started with the electricity in the clinic. We organized a electricien within the community, asked him what material he needed and negociated about the price to install it. Within 2 months everything was ready. Unfortunately to connect the installation to the Mozambican electricity network we had to organize contract for the installation, a stemp from the ministry of healty and only a half a year later this all was organized to be connected. With the donation of 2 guest for the connection to the network, more money stayed in the community fund to continue with the roof for the primairy school.