Duration:
January 2023 – December 2024
Location:
Beira and Dondo District, Province of Sofala, Mozambique
Beneficiaries:
40 families
Area of intervention:
Ability in the infrastructure
Partner:
Every year, the regions in the center of Mozambique experience severe flooding and often devastating cyclones. These natural disasters damage the homes of millions of people, as well as public infrastructure, such as bridges, power lines, schools, water systems and healthcare facilities.
In response to this issue, the “A home for all” community development project in the Sofala province of Mozambique aims to build a series of houses for needy families to be constructed over a 12-month period.
The beneficiaries of the houses are chosen from among the victims of the large and destructive Cyclone Idai in 2019 and the more recent Cyclone Chalane in late 2020. These cyclones left hundreds of people without a roof over their heads, or in precarious housing or sheltered by relatives in overcrowded buildings.
All beneficiary families live in extremely poor conditions, often even prior to Cyclone Idai. Almost all of them do not work, their only income is generated from selling agricultural products but it is seasonal and not enough to always guarantee a meal.
All of them have no access to electricity and fresh water. Their current houses are made of wood, stones and clay and they usually need repair or rebuilding after the rainy season.
By 2023, SwissABILITY- with its partner OLAPA, a local nonprofit – has already built 20 homes for families affected by cyclones and the endemic poverty that oppresses the country. In 2024 we expect to build 20 more houses, to provide relief to other families in need.
The new homes consist of a hall, two rooms, a veranda, an external kitchen and a separate external block for the bathroom. This type of building is particularly functional because it provides a basic structure that the family can enlarge at a later time. The houses are equipped with solar panels that can guarantee an ecological and green energy supply for each home.
PROJECT SHEET
SELECTED BENEFICIARIES
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The story of Joanna
Joanna lives in Dondo with two children and nine grandchildren. There is no fixed income in the family except for the little money made from the sale of agricultural products from their fields. We met Joanna in November 2022 and visited the house built with makeshift materials where the entire family lived without electricity and running water.
In 2023 Joanna received a new house, next to the house of one of her sons, which is cyclone resilient and more spacious. The house will still be supplied with a solar panel, as it is not possible to connect to electricity in this area
The story of Pascoa and Dias
Pascoa and Dias are the parents of a large family in Dondo. They are actually living with their seven children, including twins. The children all attend school although the parents do not have steady jobs: they manage to survive only by selling the agricultural products grown in the fields.
They received a house during 2023, finally abandoning the precarious house made of sheet metal in which they previously lived.
They also possessed a small solar panel, but it broke; SwissABILITY provided them with a new one so that they can benefit from electricity.
The story of Joaquin and Gilda
We met Joaquin, Gilda and their four children in 2022, when the family raised a living from coal sales and lived in a makeshift house made of straw and wood, all packed into one room.
Unfortunately, they have not been able to carry on their coal-related business and to date survive only on the sale of agricultural products.
In 2023 they received a house on land that belongs to Gilda and where the family has already been living for seven years, and they were also provided with a solar panel so they could have access to electricity.
