August 2024 – Mission to Mozambique

From August 12 to 16, 2024, SwissABILITY organized a new mission to Mozambique, this time to the Orthopedic workshop of Inhambane Provincial Hospital.

This mission was the result of SwissABILITY’s desire to train as many technicians as possible, leaving no one behind. For this reason, we not only focused on technicians from Inhambane, but also invited rehabilitation professionals from the cities of Vilanculo, Manjacaze, and even South Africa. Three students from the Instituto de ciências de saúde in Maputo joined us, to consolidate SwissABILITY’s presence in Mozambique in the future as well.

It was an intense training, rich in passion and dedication, during which everyone gave 100% to learn the new technologies taught by our Mozambican trainers, Henrique Matsinhe and Isabel Campos. At the end of the training week, the ten trained technicians returned home with the awareness of having acquired important knowledge that will make life easier for people with disabilities. And with a strong desire to get to work and consolidate what they have learned.

This was a training to make a difference in the lives of many people. People such as Maria, a victim of domestic violence, one among 11 patients who received a prosthesis at the end of the training week.

As a young mother of five children, her husband began to physically abuse her, following an argument. When she tried to escape, he grabbed a knife and started stabbing her. He severed her arm completely, then he continued to attack her entire body. Believing he had killed her, he went to the police to turn himself in. But Maria was alive! However, due to the severity of her injuries, the doctors had to amputate part of her leg as well, turning her life into a permanent prison. And at the end of the week, she received a prosthesis that provoked a new, brilliant smile.

Stories like Mary’s solidify our determination to always be there, where it is most needed.