Portuguese assistance will develop individual plans for high school students in Cabo Delgado.

Funding for the Camões Institute will enable the Portuguese NGO Helpo to tailor-make students from three secondary schools in Mozambique’s Metugue district, one of the most displaced by the terrorist attacks in Cabo Delgado.

“We hope that many students will study. Create conditions for the study of these students, because in addition to the students who are in school, we also intend to save the students who have stopped studying in the previous two years,” explained national coordinator Lusa da Helpo Carlos Almeida.

“This is a project that aims to reach all schools in the district where we are located, Metuge District, which has only three high schools despite being the second most displaced district after Pemba City. the schools are very far from each other, which means that there are many students who find it difficult to enter secondary school,” the official admitted.

This Portuguese Development Non-Governmental Organization (NGDO) developed the Appropriate Education in Emergencies project, which includes an incentive package to complete high school and “generate positive feedback among displaced students in Cabo Delgado”, worth 288,545 euros and which in August received approval for 85% funding from Camões – Instituto da Cooperacao e da Língua to reach the current 4,743 students from the district’s three schools.

“They are not fully displaced, but one of the strengths of our intervention here in Cabo Delgado has always been this: yes, we work with displaced people, but we never turn our backs on the population that welcomes them, because the first step towards creating new internal conflicts is that we give priority to displaced people who are really in great need, but it is precisely those people who receive and often donate most of their savings to support displaced people, we believe that this is very unfair when this assistance is available not for everyone,” added Carlos Almeida.

At least 188,852 families have been forced to leave their homes in Cabo Delgado to escape armed violence in northern Mozambique that has killed more than 4,000 people in the past six years, more than 773,000 people in total, but many have already begun to return to areas of origin, according to a report by the Executive Council of the Province of Cabo Delgado, published in August by Lusa.

Through other projects, Helpo has already built and donated 99 classrooms to the Ministry of Education in the provinces of Cabo Delgado and Nampula, and this support is recognized by the local authorities. “It is of great, great importance, very great. A big difference,” said Ivaldo Kinkardete, director of education for the province of Cabo Delgado, to Luse.

“Unfortunately, there are still many displaced students in our province. We started in 2021 with about 96,000 displaced students. Last year we reduced their numbers and this year we still have about 40,000 displaced students, and the Metuge area is one of those that rarely continues to have a population and, as a result, displaced students,” he admitted.

The Helpo project, which will be implemented over two years starting from January 1, 2024, was built “from the bottom up”, based on the results obtained in the work that ONGD carried out in 16 primary schools in the same district where the gift is located.

“And what conclusion did we come to? It is necessary, first of all, to pay very great attention to the individual. Students cannot be treated equally, it is necessary that cases be considered on a case-by-case basis. basis,” he said.

The goal is “to draw up an individual support plan, because there are students with different difficulties, there are students who do not study because they do not have money to buy a uniform, other students do not study because they do not study.” there is money for food, others do not study because they have no housing, they have nowhere to stay because they are too far away, others even ask us for bicycles to get around,” explained Carlos Almeida.

“Then another issue that we identified was that some displaced students feel ostracized by the rest of the population. They are often even called terrorists and that is that they feel below other students’ honor and try to break that a wall that Sometimes an invisible wall separates the two sides. And you understand that they are really all the same, they are from a different situation, but that with support and together they can all be stronger, “he admitted.

Another component of the project will be professional support for these secondary school students: “Since there are many students who do not know what steps to follow, they have the desire, and some even have the opportunity to enter universities, but they have many gaps. on how to apply, in which areas of study to follow.

“Through the rational use of funds, we have been able to individually reach more students and better reach them (…) This project, funded by Camões, demonstrates once again the attention that the Portuguese state has paid since the beginning of the current situation in Cabo Delgado. It aims precisely to reach these students and force them to continue their studies,” he concluded.