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Mozambique, Africa

MOZ04a - Tarikhi ya Haakhi Literacy Programmes

• View report dated: August 13, 2015

• View report dated: August 8, 2018

• View report dated: June 6, 2021

• View report dated: December 14, 2021

• View report dated: October 27, 2022

• View report dated: July 17, 2023

• View report dated: May 29, 2024

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Report Date: April 24, 2025

Update from BHW Mozambique Partnership Facilitators

Key Person: Talsamo Omar

We were planning to visit Angoche in early July 2025. However, due to the unrest following the general elections at the end of 2024, several partners thought it unwise to visit and the trip has been postponed for a year. 

Several conversations have been had between us and Talsamo to obtain the information contained in this report. 

Recent Events

Context

Three major issues have affected the people of Angoche in the past 6 months:
1) The elections in October 2024 and the aftermath. It was reported that the previous President lost the election, but the high court upheld his victory. The opposition contested the result and major demonstrations broke out. More than 250 people were killed by the police and army and several in Angoche, even though it is really a backwater. The unrest has not yet been fully resolved. 

The government sent soldiers into every area to ensure security and contain the unrest. When they came to Angoche the team gathered that whole community, welcomed them and had a prayer gathering with them. 

2) On December 15th, a category 4 cyclone, Chido, hit the coast of Mozambique with winds up to 220 km/h. Many homes were destroyed around the Angoche area, many people lost their lives, houses and boats. Several people from the TyH network were killed and were severely affected. 

3) The cholera outbreak. This has been widespread but many people living in Angoche have died, and it is only just beginning to abate. Several people in the network have died. Cholera outbreaks are almost annual events as the living conditions and lack of sanitation is of major concern in the whole town.  

Activities

There are several ongoing programmes that happen regularly.
- Sunday services at the main centre in Angoche continue to cater for up to 400 people each Sunday.
- As well, there are regular prayer meetings, youth meetings every Saturday and many small group meetings in houses every day of the week.
- Currently they have a team that is evangelising in Iguri and that team goes out regularly. Iguri is a large settlement not too far from Angoche that is 100% Muslim. The people there are very afraid to break with their religion and the team has struggled to make a breakthrough until this time.
- Every day more than 1,275 children gather in 51 literacy classes, mainly in and around Angoche although there are some in larger villages. When they meet, they are taught to read their own Koti language, they sing songs in Koti and learn Bible stories. They also learn to love Jesus, and this continues to build bridges into the local communities.
- Every week on Wednesdays they teach from the little books the leadership team has prepared to the zone leaders so they can go and teach other leaders in their meetings. Depending on the series, they have lessons for them to use with their people. They also have Scriptures for the week for the local groups to focus on and discuss together.  There are usually 63 leaders at the leadership meetings. Some travel for hours on their bicycles and some come from the islands on boats. The last amount of funding sent was used to purchase replacement bicycles for the zone leaders who needed them. The cycles wear out quickly as they cover many kilometres per week. 

Personal Stories

Talsamo has a madrassa in his house. One boy, the child of a neighbour whose parents are religious, did not allow him to come to the madrassa. One day the child followed other children who were his friends, and he entered the madrassa to learn. He used to hide when he came there. One day his parents found out, but the child said that he could write his father's and mother's names and he wrote his parents' names to show them. They were impressed because before the child could not read or write so the parents let the child come and learn.

 

Partnership's Influence within the Community

In general, the people in the community speak well of the work, especially the madrassas. Despite the fact that the majority of the people are from another faith, they say it is very good to let children learn from TYH people. Some people and imams forbid the children to come but most people in the community speak positively. These days parents let them learn.

There are many things positive things in the community that encourage the team in ministry. Despite the many challenges, many people are coming to the meetings crying, receiving the Holy Spirit and repenting, and receiving Jesus as their Lord and Saviour. Each week new people are coming who have decided to follow Jesus. In the week of the 7th of April 17 people who are Kotis came to faith in their meetings and outreaches. Also, when they pray for people, they are being healed.  

 

Current Issues and Challenges

There are many challenges living far from a major city. There is little infrastructure in the area and people all live in survival mode. Death is a common occurrence, and the very poorly equipped hospital is a very sad place. The challenges the team face in ministry are:
- Transporting all the leaders who come from different places to Angoche for training every week, especially during the rainy season. The roads are ruined.
- The price of food in Angoche has gone up a lot and is rising even more. Especially the widows and orphans are having difficulty buying even basic food.
- Cholera continues to ravage the community even though it is subsiding

Prayer and Praise Points

1) Please pray for the evangelization of Iguri, where they are doing house-to-house evangelization. This is their goal for 2025.
2) Pray for the gospel work in the islands so that people will no longer feel ashamed to come to the meetings.
3) Pray for the people who lost their homes due to the cyclone.
4) Give thanks that none of the key people have been lost during the cholera outbreak 
5) Praise that many people are responding week on week and the work is growing in Angoche and out in the villages. 

 

Plans for the Future

The focus currently is on the village of Iguri where they are taking teams for evangelism. They are seeing some breakthroughs and people coming to faith. 

We were planning to have a Foundations for Farming trainer with the BHW team when we visited Angoche in July. The purpose is to focus on helping the town people, especially the young people, get a vision for what they could grow in their town. There is plenty of land available and most of them have time. This has been postponed until we can next travel there. 

We suggest the budget remains the same until we can get there for a visit and review with more information. 

Comments

This continues to tick along and grow. It is in an interesting phase now as it continues to grow. It will be interesting to see how they manage the distances between Angoche and the zones and whether they can adapt and train leaders so they can decentralise.