14 October 2008
The US-based Christian charity World Vision on Tuesday announced that in the tax year ending in September it invested about 39 million US dollars in implementing projects in various parts of Mozambique.
According to the World Vision director in Mozambique, Omo Olupona, the projects concerned are located in five provinces - Gaza and Inhambane in the south of the country, Tete and Zambezia in the central region, and Nampula in the north.
He was speaking to reporters during a meeting in Maputo of leaders of World Vision branches from across the world which is scheduled to last until Friday.
The World Vision programmes cover the areas of health, education, water and sanitation, food security, infrastructures, and community development. Olupona said the situation of Mozambican children "remains rather difficult", particularly in the countryside where children face serious problems of food security, access to education and health and social protection services.
"But food security is not just a problem in Mozambique", said Olupona. "World Vision has identified 21 countries, including Mozambique, where hunger is a serious problem. In Mozambique there are particularly areas that always suffer the effects of drought".
To minimize this problem, he said, World Vision is promoting drought-resistant crops in provinces with persistently low rainfall (such as Gaza). "We always want to support post-harvest conservation", he said, "because there are places where, even if there is a good harvest, the farmers aren't able to store the crops properly".
For the October 2008/September 2009 tax year, World Vision has drawn up an initial budget for Mozambique of 29 million dollars. Olupona doubted that more money would become available during the year because of the impact of the current international banking crisis.
World Vision is one of the more controversial international charities because of its overtly religious stance. Its website describes World Vision as "an international partnership of Christians whose mission is to follow our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ in working with the poor and oppressed to promote human transformation, seek justice and bear witness to the good news of the Kingdom of God".
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