Director’s Blog
“I love the sun and I love the bumpy road of life. Mozambique happens to be the perfect combo of these two things…”
Where are we heading with our programme?
May 2023
It’s been almost eight years of setting up and running our pilot programme. Tutela now has two foster families, each of which are home to six young people of varying ages. They are in the care of Mozambican couples who are their permanent carers, just like parents. Both families seem to be functioning well and the children are receiving a kind of care that is close to a family experience. It has been a long road to get to this point, with many obstacles to overcome and challenges to navigate, but it is amazing to see a long-held dream become a reality.
As my team and I continue to work through the ongoing demands of providing this care, there’s a question that continues to nag me, which is - where do we go from here? Obviously a natural answer would be to begin to plan for the next foster family, and prepare a home and carers who can be ready to provide for more children who need it. Indeed, that is what we are moving towards, albeit slowly.
The reality is that the type of care we have established is not cheap to run. We have set things up on the premise that good quality care costs money, which is true. Providing for the day to day care for each child is alot more affordable in Mozambique than it would be in the UK, and we are convinced that the children in our foster families are having their lives dramatically transformed by the experience of a safe family unit. So in some ways, it is simply a question of working hard with our fundraising in order to be financially ready for the next foster family.
What I am currently wrestling with is whether Tutela should diversify and look at ways of supporting families in our local district who are on the edge. There are many such families in our area and the more stories we hear of broken homes, the stronger the burden becomes to want to try and do something to help prevent family breakdown. Each child that gets placed in care is essentially a moment of both happiness and sadness - the happiness comes from the joy of welcoming a child into their new family context, but it is always twinned with a sadness that their current family situation did not work out for them.
The local district where our foster homes are placed (KaMavota) is one of seven districts in Maputo city. It is the district with the most dense population with around 350,000 people. It is also potentially the most disadvantaged district as it includes the community of people who make their living from the city rubbish dump - an area of high vulnerability. A number of the children in our foster families have come from these communities so we are acquainted with some of the stories of family breakdown in this area.
It would be amazing to provide a community service that seeks to get alongside some of the mums and dads who are really struggling and enable them to be better parents even while they seek to improve their economic outlook. This would be a great initiative and if it was done in strong relationship with the local Social Welfare department then has the potential to be effective and long lasting.
So it boils down to a question of doing some research and finding out what is needed in the communities of KaMavota to benefit children and families. The ideal would be to grow in our provision of foster family settings, whilst also initiating a community service. My only concern is whether we would be spreading ourselves to thinly, in more than one direction? Our overall aim comes from our vision statement which is that all children (in KaMavota and beyond) be able to grow up in a safe and loving family. It would definitely make sense to provide a community service - in the hope that families can get better at providing safe and loving homes even while they are stuck in poverty. Our Tutela team would need to adapt and change in order to initiate a new service. And this will take time to implement.
I love the idea that good things can come from broken situations. When I think of the families who live near the city rubbish dump, and all they struggle with each day, it seems to be the perfect context for where new hope can be born and children can be safer and happier as a result.
Rally driver’s heaven
(Photo for illustration purposes only)
March 2023
Of the many years spent in Mozambique, there are lots of stories to tell, but the ones that most often spring to mind are the stories of being on the road. For some reason, it is easy to recall the moments where I got into a sticky situation with my (or someone else’s) truck…
One example is the time that I was on the way to the beach with Becky and the kids and the road was an absolute mudbath. The summer rains had been and gone and the road to Macaneta beach was completely waterlogged. Plenty of other tourist vehicles seemed to be finding a way through, so I attempted to follow them along what could only be described as a rally drivers race track. Troughs of waist-deep water appeared every half kilometer and I would slow down and watch the other vehicles gingerly feel their way through the muddy baths to see if they made it. For the first two or three of these ‘troughs’, I followed their exact course and made it to the other side. But for the next one, it all seemed rather dicey. A moment or two of deliberation, but then an over-riding sense to not admit defeat… so I decided to chart my own course. And that was where it all went wrong.
Heading in to the trough, the truck began to bump up and down. And then suddenly, the bonnet just went right down into the water and didn’t reappear. The wheels stopped moving. Car refused to budge.
Water began seeping in through the bottom of the passenger door and all five of us descended into panic. Hastily, we all climbed out through the windows of the car, jumping into muddy brown water in our flip flops and then waded to higher ground. Shock overcame me as I watched my truck getting engulfed. My fifteen years in Africa were finally catching up with me and for a few long minutes, it seemed as though luck had run out.
But then the rescue came. And it arrived in the form of a large tractor, a smiling mozambican driver and his crew. Gliding through these mudbaths with gigantic wheels as if no terrain could stop it, the tractor positioned itself on the bank next to my truck and tough metal chain was unrolled and attached to my tow hook. I hadn’t phoned anyone and hadn’t gone in search of help. This tractor had literally found us. Seconds later my truck was back on safe ground positioned in the direction to head home. Amazingly the engine started and together we headed carefully back to the predictable tarmac roads of Maputo.
I still shudder every time I recall my truck stranded under water. And then I also kick myself for not remembering to take a photo of the moment before rescue. I guess I would rather have had the super quick rescue than the photo evidence. The memory is etched in our family consciousness, but sadly no instragram post to back it up. So I guess it begs the questions of whether it really happened if it wasn’t posted on social media?!