SCIP Program in Southern Mozambique
While Mozambique is seen as a rare country to have successfully rebounded from years of civil war, many of its people still lack easy access to basic health services and clean water. IRD is working to expand this access in the Zambezia Province of southern Mozambique.
While Mozambique is seen as a rare country to have successfully rebounded from years of civil war, many of its people still lack easy access to basic health services and clean water. IRD is working to expand this access in the Zambezia Province of southern Mozambique.
Through the USAID-funded SCIP program, IRD is building support for health resources in communities. IRD gives priority to caregivers for orphans and vulnerable children and members of prevention of mother-to-child HIV transmission support groups to join the Women First network of female entrepreneurs, which will give them business skills and basic health training, and in the long-term, give them the means to better provide for their families. IRD will also build on the experience and lessons learned from a number of projects in the Zambezia province in order to facilitate the growth of district-based health associations that will continue to operate after the end of the program.
Only 32 percent of Zambezia Province’s residents have access to a protected water source, so IRD is training and equipping local masons to construct and repair wells and latrines. Many of the wells will use Afripumps, a technology relying on a minimum of moving parts that was developed specifically for African settings. Rainwater harvesting systems are being installed in six large schools. IRD is training village water committees to maintain the wells, water systems, and latrines, as well as to promote proper hygiene practices.
The five-year program will last through June 2014, and is implemented in partnership with World Vision, the Johns Hopkins University Center for Communication Programs, Vanderbilt University-Friends in Global Health, ACDI/VOCA, Adventist Development and Relief Agency, and the Mozambican Red Cross.
