Mozambique has about 19,8 million people. The average life expectancy of a Mozambiquean is about 42 years of age. That places Mozambique of the 224 countries in the world tested at about 220. If you think of the United Kingdom who averages 79 and the United States at about 76 people in Mozambique don’t get very old. Swaziland is the worst off at only 31,9 years due to the aids epidemic.

Diseases that causes the most deaths in Mozambique is according to the World Health Organisation http://www.afro.who.int/home/countries/fact_sheets/mozambique.pdf:

HIV Aids, malaria, Diarrhoeal diseases, Lower respiratory infections, Perinatal conditions, Measles, Tuberculosisk Cerebrovascular disease, Ischaemic heart disease and Protein-energy malnutrition to name a few.

We have been privileged to have a volunteer nurse from Canada, Keren Massey who wrote a Health Manual for our Bush Schools on preventative health.

We have just had our first training session with some of our teachers. Our first Health period will start during the first week of February. The program is very interactive and consist out of games, art and learning with fun in mind. Various topics will be tackled and each month of the school year will concentrate on a different health topic.

I am not sure if we are one of the first schools to do this – but in our area it is absolutely the first. The project aims to get kids to share their knowledge with their parents to maximize the influence of the Health Manuel.

Will keep you updated on how the program is running.