MOZAMBIQUE: Charity gives hope to thousands of suffering families

A religious Sister in northern Mozambique has described how aid from an international Catholic charity is helping to save lives and preserve the Faith in a region devastated by ongoing Islamist violence.

More than 5,000 people have been killed in Cabo Delgado Province and thousands “have lost everything” because of the insurgency – but the Church is working hard to ease the suffering, according to Sister Aparecida Queiroz of the Daughters of Jesus.

Sister Queiroz told Aid to the Church in Need (ACN): “Imagine that you are in your house after a day’s work and suddenly a group of armed men breaks in, kills your children and kidnaps members of your family, forcing you to flee through the bush for days, scared, hungry, thirsty, and in terrible anguish.

“Well, that is the pain that thousands of our brothers and sisters in Cabo Delgado are experiencing, people who have lost everything: their homes, family members, places of worship, their identity, and who have had to flee not once, but many times.”

Cabo Delgado is one of the country’s poorest regions, with up to 80 percent of the rural population relying on subsistence farming – but this has been disrupted by the armed conflict.

Sister Queiroz said: “The constant mobility, the coming and going of people who are just trying to survive, is at the root of this cycle of poverty.

“Children are unable to go to school, there is no access to health, families can’t farm, and there is terrible hunger.”

The region was further devastated by Cyclone Chido last December.

Sister Queiroz said that aid provided by ACN “has been like the hand of God, bringing relief and saving lives.”

The charity’s help has included emergency aid, pastoral support and counselling for those displaced and traumatised by the violence, as well as formation support for seminarians and subsistence aid for priests and religious.

Christians in the region are “receiving [pastoral] visits” and are “being listened to,” Sister Queiroz told ACN.

She said that the faithful “have access to the sacraments, to the Eucharist, but also to material aid, such as food and hygiene products.

“This is a type of assistance which is transformative, which helps them grow, and empowers them.”

She added that more than 2,000 suffering families have received food thanks to ACN’s help.

Sister Queiroz said that the charity has also made it possible for priests and religious to travel and minister to previously isolated communities – as well as enabling the diocesan radio station to give hope to thousands of people.

She concluded: “Through ACN, the hand of God is returning life to these people, and that is why we cannot stop, we must continue to be the face of Christ in this context of despair…”

“That help reaches these thousands of people in this part of the world. Thank you so much.”