Election's day in Mozambique

Maputo — All the polling stations for Mozambique's general and provincial elections will open on time, at 07.00 on Wednesday morning according to AIM.

The pledge was made at a Tuesday press conference in Maputo by Felisberto Naife, general director of the Electoral Administration Technical Secretariat (STAE), the electoral branch of the Mozambican civil service.

He said that the positioning of voting materials and electoral staff at the polling station sites in rural areas began two days ago, and should be completed on Tuesday. The materials for the urban polling stations will be positioned early on Wednesday morning.

The conditions have been guaranteed for the polling stations to open at 07.00, he insisted. To reach remote areas, seven helicopters are being used, four hired commercially by STAE, and three lent by the South African government.

Asked if there might be any repetition of the embarrassing situation that occurred in the 2004 elections when many polling stations found that they had the wrong electoral register or no register at all, which disenfranchised citizens who had registered at those stations, Naife was confident that such blunders would be avoided this time.

He said that the production and distribution of the electoral registers had been decentralised to district level, which should avoid registers going astray and ending up in the wrong part of the country.

There are a total of 12,694 polling stations for a registered electorate of over 9.8 million.

(source)

PRIME Maputo 2009

We have welcomed 5 doctors and 1 nurse, to teach different subjects at the Medical Scholl in Maputo.

Along with the training, this group was able to visit some departments of the Central Hospital, and also the Military Hospital in Maputo.

PRIME is an international network of Christians involved in healthcare education, committed to improving the quality and depth of the medical care of patients, especially those in poorer situations. This is done in partnership with health care providers worldwide, to give teaching that equips, inspires and empowers them to give excellent clinical care for the whole person.

World Health Organization Report 1998: "Until recently the health professions have largely followed a medical model, which seeks to treat patients by focusing on medicines and surgery, and gives less importance to beliefs and to faith in healing, in the physician and in the doctor-patient relationship. This reductionist or mechanistic view of patients is no longer satisfactory. Patients and physicians have begun to realise the value of elements such as faith, hope, and compassion in the healing process"

PRIME seeks to redress this balance and restore a compassionate whole person perspective to modern medicine. This is achieved through direct training activities and educating the trainers by equipping them with appropriate skills and support networks. PRIME courses are designed to be acceptable to and accessible by medical professionals, of all faiths or of none, skills and support networks.

On behalf of those students and professionals trained during these 3 days, Thank you!

More about PRIME.

Initiative...

His name is Narciso, has only one leg, and is for a long period under treatments at the Oncology department in the Central Hospital of Maputo.

He needed a little bit more that 1 USD to start his own business, which gave him already a 800% profit, in few weeks.

This is not "The secret" but only the strenght and willing to live, making him stand up every morning to go out and sell "credit" at the street near the hospital.

"Credit" is what we call the "airtime/minutes" to recharge our cell phones. It is sold all over the place in the city.

No market research or any advanced study to find out that street didn't have anyone selling this product.

With a "microcredit" of USD 1,60 (50 meticais), he was able to buy "minute cards" and sell them with a 10% profit.

Well, the more you sell, the more you make, and the less you spend, the more you keep!

What about this?

10 Years old

Good morning everyone! It's 6:40 AM and Mariana is ready for school, as always!

The difference: She is not 9 anymore! She is 10!

We are thankful for the wonderful way God has been protecting and caring for Mariana, and allowing us to be her parents.

Sorry, sorry...

Dear friends,

We have been out of the blogsphere for a while!

After our return from furlough last month, we are still on the process of getting back to normal life.

It hasn't been easy to find time to write here and share as we promised we would. Sorry for this.

Raquel and Mariana started a new school year at the Portuguese School of Mozambique, with new teachers, new classmates, and also completely different schedules.

Alice is back to the Central Hospital of Maputo where she volunteers at the Oncology department, and Jorge is back to his soccer players and friends at the orphanage, to his Ethics classes, translations and many other projects.

Step by step, we are re-arranging everything and prepared for a new season.

After almost 7000 miles traveling during 9 weeks, we had our first weekend of rest, at a small place in South Africa, 1 hour from the Mozambican border.

This place is called White River, but it's knowned for the beautiful green landscapes.