The two education projects involve building classrooms in the Lili Primary School in Nacala district, in the northern province of Nampula, and in the Estrela do Mar Industrial and Commercial School, in Inhassoro district, in the southern province of Inhambane.
The water project is the opening of boreholes in the country’s southernmost district of Matutuine. This will benefit more than 4,000 people living in the localities of Chia, Mussongue, Massale, Massuane, Geuveza, Matchia, Mandlhalhane and Huco who up to now have faced serious water shortage problems.
The projects will be implemented by the NGOs Save the Children, Centro Laici Italiani per le Missioni and CESVI (the last two are both Italian). The NGOs’ representatives in Mozambique signed grant contracts, with the Counselor in the Japanese Embassy, Keiji Hamada.
At the signing ceremony, Hamada said that the Nacala project, to be implemented by Save the Children will allow the construction of new, permanent classrooms at the Lili school, which currently only has buildings built out of flimsy traditional materials.
“With the new classrooms, it is hoped that the education environment will improve significantly, directly benefitting more than 250 pupils and teachers of this school”, he said.
The Inhassoro project, to be implemented by the Centro Laici Italiani per le Missioni, consists in building an additional five classrooms that will benefit about 150 pupils and teachers.
The expectation is that the project will help train the staff needed for the expanding tourism sector in Inhambane province.
Hamada stressed that, although Japan is still recovering from the devastating earthquake and tsunami that hit the country in March, it will continue to support development projects in Mozambique.
Over the past decade, through its programme of Assistance for Community Projects, Japan has supported a range of small scale social projects in Mozambique, with a total cost of over 8.5 million dollars.
Post published in: Africa News