The LVIA presence in Mozambique

The LVIA presence in Mozambique arose from a prior informal collaborative arrangement with Caritas Italiana.

Caritas Italiana has been active in Mozambique using its own staff since 2002, working on the implementation of the Caritas Mozambicana programme plan and in particular involved in pursuing the aim of developing its base community, founded on the communities present in the Archdiocese of Maputo and the Diocese of Inhambane. The specific initiative being undertaken at the Maputo public rubbish tip is an aspect of this general scenario as is the opportunity for Caritas Italiana and LVIA to work together.
This project, which arose as a consequence of an analysis of the needs and problems to be found in the Mavalane and Hulene districts, which is the location of the Parish of Nossa Senhora Aparecida (Our Lady Apparent) (the first to have initiated the experimental projects with the base community), is concentrating on the problems of environmental and human degradation caused by the fact that the district includes the Capital’s main garbage disposal location, the “lixeira” (the “Dump”). In the light of the experience gained by the LVIA since 1998 in Senegal and 2003 in Burkina Faso and Mauritania, in the question of the collection of waste and the recycling of plastic, the LVIA became over the course of 2004 a reference in the quest for possible workable directions to be adopted. The informational material and the case studies made available to the LVIA with the Caritas Italiana team, have been a powerful stimulus to the creation of ideas for projects.

Christmas celebration at the Anitmation and Scholarisation Center for children living in Hulene B: an alternative to life in the dump

At the beginning of 2005 Caritas Italiana proposed a direct collaboration with LVIA in the execution of the project to begin to establish its own presence in Maputo. Through an initial exploratory mission contacts were established with the Authorities and the local and international partners concerned with, and/or working on, the waste problem and the fight against environmental degradation, and to define the technical details for the opening of the plastic recycling centre on the model of that already under way in Senegal. The subsequent working agreement establishes that the contribution made by LVIA is to deal with technical and organisational matters in support of the local partner, while Caritas Mozambicana is responsible for the legal matters, the direct connection with the various players involved with the local partners and also possibly as a reference regarding the socio-economic aspects of the individuals working in and associated with the project (primarily the people who actually collect garbage on the dump). The collaboration between LVIA and Caritas Mozambicana is backed by Caritas Italiana.

Over the same year, the project collaboration initiative with Caritas Mozambicana has revealed its value in the development of two subsequent social-environmental projects in the urban context (children on the garbage dump and micro-credit) and in the rural context (community micro-development). Also with a view to being able to satisfactorily continue these new project plans, since February 2006 a second operator has joined the LVIA country coordinator (who in the meantime has been officially recognised as present by the Mozambique Ministry for Foreign Affairs).