Angola London Mozambique Association

In 2007 St John's twinned with Ngofi in Mozambique through the Angola London Mozambique Association (ALMA).

As the representive of St John's for ALMA, it has been a humbling experience. Every quarter, I go to a meeting with all the ALMA Reps in London. I hear first hand from the reps how they have visited their own twinned parishes in Mozambique and Angola and the daily struggle of people in these countries is unimaagble.

Having heard the stories,it would not be human of me and us at St Johns not to want to help. However, the faith and devotion to the church of the people in Ngofi would put most of us to shame, in the UK.

I am also in touch on a weekly basis with Helen, who is Bishop Mark’s wife out in Mozambique to see how we can help as their has been great floods across Mozambique again bring great hardship.

About Mozambique

Mozambique is a truly beautiful country, with 1,500 miles of golden sand beaches, which forms its eastern border. The other borders are Tanzania, Malawi, Zambia, Swaziland and South Africa.

Portuguese is the official language, but is only really spoken by people who have been lucky in enough to go to school.

There was a long civil war, which ended in 1992, which destroyed most of the schools, clinics and government buildings. Since that time Mozambique has embraced reforms and the principles of a free market and tolerates free press and an increasingly assertive society.

Why Should We Care?

We are all part of one world and I believe are all individually and collectively responsible for our actions. A phrase, that has always stayed with me since I first heard it is, “The road to hell is paved by good intentions”. Therefore I and numerous members of St Johns congregation and the wider community are committed to supporting Ngofi.

Mozambique is one of the poorest countries in the world and Ngofi is in a very remote Northern part of the country on the lake shore of Lake Malawi and extremely econically poor, but extremely spiritually rich.

There are alone 2,000 orphans on the Northern lake shore, that lack, food, education and have on the whole orphans, have to fend for themselves, because os extreme poverty in the region and the scorage of HIV/AIDS.

Fast Facts:

• 60% of children do not have schooling
• Life expectancy is 47 years
• One third of the population do not have clean water
• Nearly half the population do not have health care

Until I was involved with ALMA two years ago I would have never imagined how physically hard life could be, and how much we all have in comparison in the UK. The people there have an understanding and strength of life, that many in the Western world of us have forgotten. Listening to the stories at ALMA meetings and communicating via email has also shown me how much the people of Ngofi could teach us about our lives.

These are people have so little in material terms and we have so much, it takes very little to help and make a difference.

What Can You Do To Help The People Of Nogfi?

• Pray for the people in Ngofi
• Write a letter
• Package up baby clothes to be sent out
• Make a donation
• Raise money and awareness
• Sponsor a child

For information or if you would like to help out in any way, please contact me