Mozambique

Light for the World has been enabling eye health services and breaking down barriers that prevent disability inclusion in Mozambique since 1998. Together with our partners we are pioneers in disability-inclusive education. We also promote the economic empowerment of people with disabilities, with emphasis on technical and vocational training, entrepreneurship, as well as self-employment.

We enable eye health services 

We work with the National Eye Health Programme of the Ministry of Health to develop and implement the national eye health strategy. We take a people-centred approach, focusing on community and primary health care that specifically targets the hardest to reach, especially women, rural populations, children in and out of school and people with disabilities (notably through the “1,2,3 I can see!” programme). Together with our partners, we ensure universal access to affordable, quality eye care, with specialists in child eye health and glaucoma.

We also help expand human resource for eye health, focussing on training ophthalmic technicians, as well as offering subspecialty training in glaucoma, paediatric ophthalmology and oculoplastic surgery.

Ultimately, we promote and facilitate coordination among eye health advocates to help contribute to an integrated public eye health service in Mozambique.

We champion inclusive education  

We promote student-centred educational teaching methodologies. We lobby the Ministry of Education and Human Development to make sure all teachers are trained in inclusive methodologies, and that schools are fully accessible, including through proper investment. Through our partners, we ensure that teachers are equipped with the right tools to make their teaching fully accessible and inclusive.

We also provide assistive technology for children with disabilities to improve their learning outcomes. We support the early identification, enrolment, retention and progression of girls and boys with disabilities in communities reached by community partners in Beira, Búzi, Chibabava, Dondo, Gorongosa, and Nhamatanda.

We promote inclusive economic empowerment  

Women and men with disabilities and their family members in Mozambique should have equal access to income generation activities and economic empowerment so that they can live independently and free from poverty. To this end, we lobby the Ministry of Labour to ensure that the employment legal framework is disability friendly. This means that it should encourage people with disabilities and their families into work and ensure that all government vocational training centres and economic empowerment programmes are accessible and apply inclusive teaching and learning methodologies. We also provide business start-up financing for women with children with severe disabilities and support the development of village saving loans associations (find out more on SPARK website).