Here are a few of the 1500 chicks we currently have at the center! They are growing so fast. It only takes 28 days for them to fully grow to be sold. The women are working very hard with this batch of chicks, they are learning and paving a brighter path for their futures.

Mozblog 1: What Is Going On?

When I told people that I was going to Africa for eight months, they would naturally ask why, and I would tell them that I was going to be the director of a women's center. I soon changed my answer to women's educational center when I realized most people took "women's center" to mean a shelter for abused women and children, which this center is not. However, the more I have tried to explain exactly what we are doing in Mozambique, the more I have felt unable to concisely convey what the purpose of this women’s center is. So, what am I doing in Africa? What is the goal of the non-profit organization that I work for, The No Poor Among Us Foundation?

The Women's Center, in all of its resplendent glory

We planted the garden just last week

A third angle, just to be safe

Straight out of the mouth of my boss, David Hamblin (he and his wife, Charlotte, founded the organization): we are trying to help women improve their lives by giving them the means to increase their family income. That’s as simple as it gets, the atomic definition of our goal. Now, how do we plan to accomplish this? Through education.

David Hamblin, in all of his resplendent glory

Charlotte Hamblin, his lovely wife

David and Charlotte knew that coming to Mozambique and telling the women they met what they needed to do to improve their quality of life would not work. These women asked for a center where they could come and learn, and they told us what they wanted to learn. They wanted to learn how to sew, grow marketable produce, raise chickens, and how to cook food items that will sell.

So here I am in Mozambique with another youthful compatriot (Dave Beesley) working at an education center for women where they will learn to sew clothes, cook cakes, raise poultry, and grow veggies. David and Charlotte Hamblin must be good listeners. My first two weeks as we’ve been busy setting things up, I’ve watched David Hamblin work without complaint halfway around the world from his family, taking marching orders from his concerned wife, Charlotte, via Skype, and I tell him that he sure has a funny idea of retirement. What they’re doing is truly amazing.

A bird's eye view of the chicken house

Day one with the little chicks, Dave B., and the two women who are training first: Cecília and Clementina

Culinary arts, my favorite class

            Apart from the technical aspects of the different bread-winning ventures that the women are learning, we are using a remarkable program to teach the women how to successfully start and run a small business called “Self Reliant.” It is a 12-week class developed by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints that tutors learners in simple economic principles but, most importantly, encourages the students to use the resources around them to solve problems on their own. The program, just released last year, has been piloted in the Philippines for over a decade where it was vastly successful, and we are very excited to use it here.

            Aside from this once-a-week class and the technical training given in each respective field by local experts, we aim to improve the literacy of the women in both language and math, so we’ll have classes in these areas as well. No Poor Among Us also sponsors girls to go to secondary school and college by giving them uniforms (which we sew here) and paying for their tuition and books. This year we are also starting after school activities for these girls in order to help them succeed.

Here are the girls from the local school on the day they received new uniforms
Thanks to all the sponsors

We’ll also be teaching some local school kids computer skills (this is mostly Dave Beesley’s arena) so that they have a better chance in today’s computer-centric economy. Additionally, We will be employing a nurse to work here at the center for at least one day a week so that we can provide some sustainable health services to the families in the area.

The reason I love this non-profit organization so much is because everything it does has to do with education. In my opinion education is the most worthwhile, sustainable and impactful humanitarian aid out there. A women more educated means a family, and eventually an entire posterity more educated. 

Thus our motto: Lift a Woman, Raise a Nation.