Buddhist foundation builds Mozambique’s largest secondary school in region devastated by Cyclone Idai

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Buddhist foundation builds Mozambique’s largest secondary school in region devastated by Cyclone Idai

1:22 CAT | 04 Dec 2023

File photo: Tzu Chi Foundation Mozambique

In the Mozambican district of Dondo, one of the worst affected by Cyclone Idai in 2019, the imposing building of the Mafambisse Secondary School, a project by the Tzu Chi foundation budgeted at around €11 million, stands out.

“The school is prepared for 7,500 students. But it is possible to have 10,000 students here, if there is a night shift,” Dino Foi tells Lusa. Foi is the president of the Tzu Chi charity foundation, which financed the construction of the infrastructure as part of its support for reconstruction in areas devastated by Cyclone Idai, a Category Three cyclone that struck central Mozambique in March, 2019.

A total of US$13 million (€11 million) was invested in the project, whose construction began in 2019, and which is made up of 58 classrooms distributed across seven blocks.

“When we arrived here [days after the cyclone hit] we found children studying practically in the water,” Foi added.

The geographical location of Sofala province, among those worst affected by cyclical natural disasters in Mozambique, forced the foundation to invest in “resilient construction”, with the infrastructure built to resist Category Four cyclones.

“Everything we are building at this point complies with the United Nations ‘Build Back Better’ system,” the Tzu Chi president noted.

In addition to the “resilient construction”, the school, which will be opened at the start of the next school year (February), was built with space to shelter residents from surrounding communities in cases of natural disasters or emergencies.

“In the specific case of this school, we have room for the whole population to take shelter in the event of natural disasters,” Foi declares.

In addition to the Mafambisse Secondary School, the Tzu Chi foundation is financing the construction of 22 more schools in the region.

“The principle is the same: we calculate how many primary schools there are in the area, and provide secondary schools for children to continue studying after completing primary school. One of the problems we face here in Mozambique is that, due to the distances involved, children often give up studying after primary school,” Foi adds.

“The children have improved their achievement since this school was built. Previously, our classes were held in the shade of trees and, as a result, children were easily distracted. Not anymore; the children concentrate,” says Laurinda Manuel, teacher at Escola Primária Joaquim Mara, another institution built with Tzu Chi support, in Nhamtanda district, also in Sofala province.

In addition to schools, the Buddhist foundation has financed the construction of 3,000 houses for people affected by Cyclone Idai in Sofala.

The foundation’s support package for the reconstruction in Sofala is budgeted at US$108 million (€101 million), entirely provided by the organisation, which has been actively supporting the authorities in times of emergency in Mozambique since 2012.

Mozambique is among the countries worst affected by climate change in the world, facing seasonal floods and tropical cyclones between October and April.

The 2018-2019 rainy season was one of the most severe in living memory in Mozambique. Seven hundred and fourteen people died, including 648 victims of cyclones Idai and Kenneth, two of the biggest to ever hit the country.

Source: Lusa