Educa Mussapadze

The purpose of the project MUSSAPADZE is to build a school in Mozambique for about 100 children, providing them the basic right to education.

The purpose of the project MUSSAPADZE is to build a school in Mozambique for about 100 children, providing them the basic right to education.

Considering that Mozambique is one of the poorest countries in the world, with lots of economical, humanitarian and social problems, education has always been relegated to a secondary plane. Currently, 60% of children have the chance to attend school, from which only 78% are able to finish first grade and 29% to complete second grade of primary school. This sad reality is mainly due to the lack of primary schools and consequently, the alphabetical rate of this country is only 40%, adding to its’ poverty.

The aim of this project is to build a primary school in Margarida’s Farm, located near Gondola, in the Manica province. The farm is a beautiful property with access to a river called Mussapadze – giving its’ name to this project. The children living there and attending the school are like every other children: they like to play, to swim in the river and laugh a lot. In this farm Margarida houses 60 families and she not only worries about the importance of giving them jobs and tools, but also has a concern about the rights of the people: she doubled the minimum wedge, she provides medicines, and she takes sick people to the hospital. Margarida is well known in the community, for her kind heart and a lot of people calls her “Mother” due to all the efforts she does to help everybody.

Since Margarida arrived to Mozambique the farm has grown up and nowadays more or less 100 hundred kids in primary school attending age live there and for this reason she wants to invest in a school in order to give them opportunities and basic conditions to have access to quality education.

Currently the children of these families and from other villages nearby are attending pre-school classes daily, which happen under a tree, with no seats, no  chairs and no books. The kids are sitting either on the floor or in old empty plastic buckets, none of them have a book, a pen or a piece of paper. The teacher does not have a board to write, she does it in a piece of zinc plate.  This project will allow the community to have a safe place for kids to learn, and to have the right tools to build their future.

We want to build a 4 classrooms school with approximately 20 m ² each and a common space for playground. Besides having 1^st to 4^th grade classes, each with 20 children, there will be a preschool, attended by 25 kids.

The land where the school will be built is going to be gracefully donated by Margarida and the building will become property of the state. All of the maintenance will be responsibility of the Local Parents Association, so that the people will have the joy of having an equipment and the responsibility of keeping it in good conditions. 

Crianças junto ao rio Mussapadze

Like Nelson Mandela said, “Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.” Let’s give this community the chance to write a different history and to provide all the access to education.

About the author

Teresa Barjona de Freitas is the daughter of Margarida. Based in France, is the main contact to Margarida and the person who is making the bridge between Margarida’s dream and the reality. Teresa has been to Mozambique several times and always tries to develop some social work. She brings clothes and toys and gives to the people living in her mother’s farm. A big part of her family is in Mozambique so she is sensitive to the cause. Teresa has already worked in many projects with children and finds fascinating the will these kids have to go to school with nothing but their own desire to learn. Last time Teresa did a big trip, she travelled along South Africa, Mozambique and Zimbabwe. Before that she had the chance to go to Senegal and visit an orphanage, where she started to understand the difference she could do in other people’s lives.

Marisa Enes Lemos , is 27 years old,  lives in Esposende and is the person in charge of the comunication plan and design. Marisa loves outdoor activities and has already tried a little bit of all sports. She is passionate about travelling and ahs been around the world.  Professionaly, Marisa is a PRoduction Manager in a factoru.  Marisa's role in crutial in this project to help achieve our goals. 

Finnaly, we also had the pleasure of having Matila, Marisa's sister, who has done the beautiful logo for this porject. 

Budget and due dates

The budget for this project is 3500€. All the expenses are related to labor cost, building and furniture for the school. The books costs and teachers’ wages will be sustained by the local government.
The school will have 4 class rooms and 1 common playground.
Attached you can find:
Table 1, Project Planning
Table 2, the budget divided by main categories.
The goal is to have the new school ready to start classes on the 1 st March, one month after the beginning of the new scholar year.

Images

Documents

• Tabela 1

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• Tabela 2

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