SYNERGY

Project name: Maforga
Date: 26, 27, 28 March 2012
Place: Oldenburg, Germany

The Maforga Mission, located deep in the rural areas of central Mozambique, is a small association currently run by only a few volunteers that care for nearly 100 Mozambican orphans, ages 0 to 18.

Day-to-day activities of the volunteers include teaching, feeding, providing a place to sleep, and giving assistance to the children.

Although some of the basic needs are provided, such as access to water and electricity, the Mission is running critically low on funds to feed the children. They are now searching for ways to create businesses to supply a sustainable income.

A prospective source of such income may come from a river, which flows within the grounds of the mission. Studies have shown that there is potential to use the river to generate either electrical or mechanical power as the primary means to produce income.

During the Workshop, we shall further explore the technical possibilities to make the most out of this river or any other local resource available.

The work done by the participants, which will be divided into groups, aims to answer key questions such as:

"Which productive use of the energy shall most benefit the Mission on the long run from a social, environmental, economical and technical point of view?" or

"Which can be the expected side effects of the chosen solution(s)?" or even

"What is the best way to monitor and evaluate the project so it can guarantee functionality and be constantly improved?"

With the results of the workshop, our local correspondent at the Maforga Mission shall start to implement the suggestions made right away so the lives of the nearly 100 children can improve. As the Brazilian activist Herbert de Souza recurrently said, "Who is hungry cannot wait".

Link: Maforga Project - Final Report

Link: Maforga Summary

Link: Brochure