Empowering Women in Mozambique
In collaboration with Global Partners Health Network and Wayfinders Africa, a team of medical providers from West Michigan will be traveling to Mozambique in 2023 to educate on health issues that are important to women. Connecting with women in the Maratane Refugee Camp near Nampula and surrounding villages which are populated by Makua, a local tribe, the group will focus their attention on several important topics such as family planning, contagious diseases, nutrition and infant and childcare. General health concerns such as diabetes, hypertension and anemia will also be addressed. Sessions that focus on these topics will be led by team members during a two-day health conference within the camp and another teaching session in one of the surrounding villages.
The group also has a passion for teaching leaders and empowering women to be self-sufficient and will be exploring a program that would allow for the local creation of reusable menstrual pads. This can eliminate a barrier to education, as many young women will not go to school during their menstrual cycle. With sewing capabilities already in place, Wayfinders Africa currently works with women who sew purses and other goods. The team will spend time locating fabrics, teaching women how to create the pads and exploring how accepted the products are in the camp and villages.
Another way the group hopes to improve healthcare will be by spending time with nurses who work in the small, government-run clinic in the camp. The clinic provides basic healthcare along with obstetrical services but is poorly resourced. Time in the clinic will allow for the encouragement and education of the nurses and identification of supplies and equipment that would allow them to deliver better care.
The camp rarely gets visitors so the team will also spend time connecting with families in the refugee camp as well as with locals in order to build relationships and discover further needs of this community.
GPHN and Wayfinders Africa have desired to have a medical team come to Mozambique to focus on women’s health for the past several years and are excited to see this team come together and start exploring ways to connect with and improve the health of women in Mozambique.
Please join us in praying for this trip, set to take place in August. To stay up to date and involved in what the Global Partners Health Network is doing across the globe, check out gponline.org/gphn or email scott.addison@gponline.org.