AID grant no. 656-0217-G-00-3048[-00] to Action Internationale Contre la Faim (AICF) to support an integrated health, water and sanitation activity in Sofala Province and to facilitate the transition from emergency to rehabilitation

Sofala Province was one of the areas most affected by the 1992 drought, as well as by the insurgency in Mozambique. The project will hand-dig 30 boreholes (10 in Sena and 20 in Murraca); each well will be equipped with a cement apron, drain, and hand pump installed on a sealed well head. Water supply activities will be preceded by a community participation and education program; construction/rehabilitation will take a decentralized approach to ensure community participation and knowledge transference; community water source caretakers will be trained and equipped for pump repair and water point maintenance; and community water committees will be established and trained in utilization of the well and pump, the proper use and treatment of water, and the general relationship of water to health. AICF will survey water points in Murraca and Sena and identify priority sites for rehabilitation/construction. Secondly, AICF will rehabilitate/reconstruct two health centers which were destroyed during the insurgency, one in Murraca and one in Sena. To the extent possible, health center reconstruction will be done using local materials and village volunteer labor. AICF will ensure that drugs and supplies are regularly provided, through the MOH/UNICEF, to the health centers. AICF will reestablish a MCH activity at the Sena and Murraca health centers. This activity will include vaccinations; training mothers in the importance of vaccinations and use of ORT; nutritional education; prenatal consultations; development of a health education program for mothers related to water, sanitation, and disease prevention; and training of traditional birth attendants in delivery procedures. In addition, AICF will institute nutritional monitoring of children under age 5 who participate in MCH activities in Sena or Murraca as well as in outlying areas where a need is identified; undertake nutritional surveys to determine the number and location of malnourished children under 5; and organize, with other donor funding, supplemental feeding programs where required. Severely malnourished children will be referred to therapeutic feeding centers in the Caia District. Mothers will receive training in nutrition, including the identification of malnutrition and its treatment with locally available products. Nutritional activities will be integrated into the MCH activities once the objectives listed above have been met and the program is fully established.