Mozambique
Country Profile/Quick Facts
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Mozambique also faces an AIDS epidemic with potentially calamitous social and economic repercussions. Over 80,000 people have died of AIDS since 1986 and 1.2 million are carrying the AIDS virus, ranking Mozambique seventh among the worst hit countries in the world for HIV infection. Incidence rates are as high as 20 percent in some regions and it is estimated that only 5 to 10 percent of HIV cases are reported. Every day close to 700 people are infected with the virus. About 310,000 children have lost their parents since the beginning of the epidemic. At the current rate of 100,000 new HIV cases reported each year, a 15-year-old has more than a 50 percent chance of dying from the illness. Health facilities in rural communities, where the majority of the population lives, are scarce and generally inadequate to meet basic health needs let alone the scourge of AIDS. Despite the growing menace of AIDS, malaria still ranks as the main cause of illness and death in the country and the major cause of anemia, low birth weight and miscarriage.
Against this back drop the country has been struggling to overcome the effects of the devastating floods which caused extensive damage and loss of life in 2000 and again in 2001. Over 200,000 square kilometres in the south and central parts of the country were deluged by the worst flooding and cyclone-related damage in 50 years, forcing almost a million people to flee their homes and destroying large amounts of cultivated land.
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The Marjacaze Orthopaedic Centre | |
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Since 2001, the CRC has been contributing to a program designed to assist survivors of landmines left over from the civil war. An estimated two million uncleared landmines remain in the country and, though victims of accidental explosions have decreased to relatively small numbers, there is a strong need to assist people who have lost limbs with prosthetics and rehabilitation. Up to 2,000 communities are still affected by landmines. With funding from the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) Mines Action Unit, the CRC is helping to identify victims of landmine accidents and transport them to provincial orthopedic centres to be fitted with artificial limbs. The program also provides financial assistance to landmine survivors, supporting their efforts to reintegrate themselves and their families into society and the economy.
Mozambique Red Cross has demonstrated real strength in assistance to mine survivors, and lessons learned are being exchanged with other National Societies in the region, such as the Namibian Red Cross. In 2002, CRC is supporting a regional mines capacity building workshop, drawing together National Societies in the Southern Africa region, to share experiences in mine action awareness and survivor assistance.
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Capital: Maputo |
