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Solidarity
Summer 2002
08/09/2002
Chibuto
(Mozambique)
A visit to the "Sant'Egidio Village"
A day's visit to the village built by the Community in the Chimundo neighbourhood, in Chibuto, after the floods of year 2000.
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 Chibuto lies 150 km north from the capital Maputo, in the Province of Gaza.
It is one of the areas hit by the floods of year 2000.
There the Community
built a village with 70 houses, a school, a health centre, some wells. The houses were delivered about a year ago.
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Leaving
from the capital with its great poverty and its skyscrapers, we advance into a quite different, rural Mozambique, whose population represents more than 80% of the whole country. Reed houses scattered upon wide areas, isolated earth huts and some small villages lying next to the only asphalted road crossing the country from the south to the
north.
As we come closer to Xai-Xai, the capital of Gaza Province, we are noticing the results of the past years' floods: interrupted streets, remains of abandoned houses, huts like earth heaps, grounds with water yet not absorbed one year
later.
Still, crossing the Mozambican countryside, we are amazed at seeing some women working in the fields with their children on their backs; women bearing big branches on their heads to light the fire; women carrying water. Women appear to be the protagonists of Mozambique's life and
reconstruction.
 Entering the Chimundo neighbourhood � known as "Sant'Egidio village" by now � we immediately notice something familiar: the great dove of peace with the rainbow on the outer wall of the building of the new school. The head of the village is waiting for us, proud of showing us the new houses. At last, after so many earth huts, here are true, beautiful, coloured masonry houses with bathrooms aside, a rarity
here.
In the meanwhile, more than 300 children are waiting for us in the primary school, about 1 km far from the village. Each one of them, even the youngest, holds a hoe or another tool, because today at school is dedicated to manual activities, mainly building lavatories. They are all still and silent, sitting on the ground and waiting to know what is going to be their activity today. They are enormously amazed as they get to know that today is not working day but �there will be a feast, the feast of the School of Peace! They sing and dance, the feast is for all, included the teachers and the headmaster. Finally, the great surprise: exercise-books and pens for everyone. It is really a different
Saturday.
 In the afternoon we build up our "mobile outpatients department" among the village's houses. These women and their children have not been seeing a doctor for a long time. In the beginning, they are a little fearful. After a short time, we start reading together "Como vai a sa�de?", the health education book, and fear disappears. The department gets more and more crowded, some people also come from the nearer villages. Children are often affected by illnesses depending on their poor living conditions. Many of them have symptoms of malaria, intestinal infections or respiratory illnesses, because of winter cold. We succeed in visiting everyone. We provide medicines to take home to anyone needing them.
It is a precious gift. A young woman says: "With these houses we rebuilt our past. Today, you are caring for our children, with whom we will build our future".
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