RESILIENCE AND OPPORTUNITY: How Gina Transformed her family’s life

Gina was born and grew up in a small village in the community of Cabula, Larde district.

As an adult, she moved to Tibane and, with her husband and five children, Gina supported her family through farming – growing and selling cassava, peanuts and beans. Despite her efforts, the family’s income rarely exceeded 7,500 MZN ($117) per harvest, which did not meet the household’s basic needs.

In 2008, through a KMAD income-generation initiative, Gina and five other women received a loan of 14,000 MZN ($200) and training in sewing. The group began producing sample bags for Kenmare, securing a stable and steady market. In less than a year, they paid off the loan.

Now, the sewing business provides Gina and her partners with a monthly income ranging from 100,000 to 130,000 MZN ($1,600-2,000). With this income, Gina not only built three brick houses, but also invested in a large six-hectare farm, ensuring food security for her family, and increasing her harvests.

But perhaps Gina’s greatest achievement lies in the opportunities she has been able to provide for her children. With the earnings from sewing, she covered the schooling costs for three of them, who now attend both primary and secondary school. Gina is much more than a farmer or seamstress – she is a symbol of hope and transformation in her community

Ibraimo Momade, who is 53 years old, is married and the father of five children. He lives in Moma district, Nampula Province, in the locality of Pilivili.

With more than three decades of experience in business, Ibraimo’s journey has been one of trial and error, and ups and downs, as he tried various economic activities, from selling fuel and used clothing and a variety of other products. However, it was in the food trade that he truly found his calling.

KMAD’s small business support programme gave Ibraimo, and his brother Murgiua Momade, a loan of 500,000 MZN. They matched this loan with an additional 500,000 MZN from their own funds.

With this capital, the two brothers expanded their business selling food, and in just three years, they managed to pay off the KMAD loan. But Ibraimo and Murgiua didn’t stop there. Together, they transformed their retail business into a wholesale distribution venture, gaining market share not only in Pilivili but in surrounding localities as well.

This growth was not just a financial success but also a testament to their dedication and hard work in meeting the needs of their community. The business provided them with an average monthly revenue of around 300,000 MZN. They used this to invest in building their own warehouse, finance their children’s education and support their parents.

Recently, the brothers received a new loan from KMAD, this time for 750,000 MZN. They have added 400,000 MZN of their own funds and have ambitious plans to build another outlet and expand their operations, and offer a wider range of products and services.

The Clinical Analysis Laboratory at the Topuito Health Centre is one of KMAD’s recent investments. It has made a direct impact on improving healthcare services for a population of over 20,000 people.

The Topuito Health Centre, where the laboratory has been built, originally had two healthcare facilities, one building for outpatient consultations and another for maternity services. During the development of the 2019/2021 strategic plan, the local community requested the construction of a new maternity ward to provide greater comfort and convenience for expectant mothers.

With the completion of the new ward, the old maternity building was left vacant. KMAD received a request from the Larde District Government to convert the building into a clinical analysis laboratory to meet the growing demand for laboratory services in the Topuito area.

Before the opening of this laboratory, many patients had to be transferred to the Moma district hospital, which is more than 80 km away.

Domingos Waite, the Director of the Topuito Health Centre, outlined how a significant portion of these transfers involved women with serious haemorrhage complications before, during or after childbirth. These situations often required urgent transfers and, in some cases, resulted in fatal outcomes.

Equipped with state-of-the-art technology, the laboratory has equipment that even some of the larger hospitals do not have. As a result, sometimes, the Larde Health Centre sends samples to be analysed at the Topuito laboratory.

The laboratory can conduct tests such as full blood tests and biochemical analysis. It also has the capacity to store donated blood reserves for use in emergencies.

The establishment of the laboratory not only improved the healthcare services available to the local community, but also provides regional expertise, reducing transfers to other healthcare centres and dealing with transfers from nearby facilities.

Mucaija Selemane is a 63-year-old woman and devoted mother of nine.

For years, her daily routine involved an exhausting journey, walking more than two kilometres each day with other women from her community to the lower part of the village in search of water. They had to carry heavy buckets filled with water that was often contaminated and frequently led to illnesses.

To address these problems, KMAD constructed a water supply system with a 20,000-litre reservoir and seven public taps, strategically distributed throughout the community, including in the expanding areas. For the first time, the community had access to clean and safe water. Mucaija then had a domestic connection installed at home.

For Mucaija, this was a profound transformation. Her children now have access to clean water, which means better health and the time she spent on long journeys to fetch water is now used to develop her small business of producing maheu, a traditional non-alcoholic beverage, which is the family’s main source of income.

She has transformed her life and that of her family and is free of the burden of daily water collection.