Building a Future for Mozambique

Student Activities

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1. Locate further maps of Mozambique, and the places named in the case study, and record heights above sea level, temperature, precipitation, natural vegetation and agriculture for each. Brainstorm in pairs how the lives of Mozambicans might be affected by such factors. For example, how might the landscape and natural vegetation assist or discourage agricultural activity? How might the temperature or precipitation affect daily activities, or those at certain times of the year? What do these findings contribute to your overall understandings of life in Mozambique?

2. Imagine you had been given responsibility for helping Mozambique recover after the war. Aside from building schools, identify five other programs you would have initiated to help the people. Devise a priority order for the programs. Give reasons for your order.

3. Write a newspaper article detailing some of the positive news from Mozambique, perhaps by pretending to interview local people for their opinions.

4. • Mozambique's adult literacy rate has increased slightly in the last five years, but is still only 37 per cent. (Australia - adult illiteracy is almost 0 per cent)
   • Sixty-four per cent of illiterate people are female. (Australia - female illiteracy is almost 0 per cent)
   • Of all school-age children, 69 per cent of boys and 51 per cent of girls attend school. (Australia - almost 100 per cent of school-age boys and girls attend school)
   • Only 51 per cent of all children reach grade four. (Australian - 99 per cent of children reach grade four)
   • There are 55 pupils per teacher at primary school and 33 pupils per teacher at secondary school. (Australia - 17 children per teacher at primary school and 12 children per teacher at secondary school)

     (Most recent estimates from Human Development Report 1995 and Social Indicators of Development 1995)

     • In what ways do you think your life would be different now, or in the future, if you had only been educated to grade four?
     • Use evidence from the story and the above statistics to explain why girls are more often illiterate than boys.
     • Explain how improvements in education could help contribute to Mozambique's recovery in the long term.

5. Education for women and girls is considered essential to ensuring healthy families and communities, and for assisting women to have fewer children if they wish.

   • Many Mozambican girls are married with their first child by their late teens.
   • Mozambique has an infant mortality rate of 148 children per thousand live births, and the world's highest under five mortality rate of 282 deaths per thousand. (Australia - infant mortality rate is 7 per cent; under-five mortality rate is 8 per cent).
   • With contraception unavailable or not used, and cultural beliefs in the need to have more children to care for aged parents and make up for those children who will die young, the total fertility rate is 6.4 births per woman. (Australia - 1.9 per cent)

     (Most recent estimates from Human Development Report 1995 and Social Indicators of Development 1995)

     • Brainstorm in small groups how educating girls and women can lead to healthier families and communities, and how education can assist women in having fewer children if they wish.
     • In what other ways might education assist women and their communities?

6. Individually, in pairs or in small groups, investigate one or more of the following:

   • the traditional lifestyles (for example, social structure, relationships with the environment, food production, quality of health and local trade systems) of Mozambicans
   • methods used by the Portuguese to control the land, people and resources of Mozambique from the early period to later this century, and why and how the rule ended
   • Mozambique's current and potential natural resources for its own use as well as for export

   Present your findings as either formal reports, poster projects, oral presentations, role plays of key events or creative writing such as diary extracts, letters, short stories, historical douments or interviews with particular individuals or groups.

7. Using evidence from the case study, roleplay or draw a set of cartoon frames representing the typical day of a Mozambican girl or woman.

8. Estimate how many hours a day you spend watching television. How would your life be different without television? Think of both the advantages and the disadvantages.

9. Returned Australian Voluteers, with a wide range of experiences, are often willing to visit schools as guest speakers. Think of a work experience or location about which you would like to know more and contact your local Australian Volunteers International. (Contact details in Teachers' Notes.) You might also begin to consider if and how you could become involved in future programs.

10. Most of Australia's overseas aid to Africa goes to Mozambique. For an overview of recent Australian aid initiatives, visit AusAID's internet site (click here), read Focus, December 1994, or obtain AusAID's colourful publications or statistical summaries of programs. (Contact details in Teachers' Notes.) Make a colorful poster showing how Australia's overseas aid program assists Mozambique or Africa in general.