Being Socially Responsible in Mozambique, Africa

I’ve always wanted to go to Africa. Everything I’d heard about the people who live there gave me a desire to go and see it all for myself. Maybe that’s why when I read an article in the newspaper about Care for Life, I couldn’t get it out of my head. Care for Life is a nonprofit organization based out of Arizona that helps rebuild in the war-torn country of Mozambique. After months of putting it off for whatever reason, I finally committed to joining them this summer.

A 16-year civil war left the southeastern African country of Mozambique one of the poorest in the world. The founders of Care for Life have sought to help the people of Mozambique by teaching them how they can help themselves. Care for Life goes from village to village, teaching local leaders how to improve health care, quality of life, and self-reliance. The difference they have made so far has been dramatic.

I traveled to Mozambique with Care for Life as a volunteer journalist. I spoke directly with the people in the villages about how Care for Life has helped them. The most common thing I was told is that because of Care for Life, the people in the village now know how to take care of each other. They don’t just focus on themselves anymore. They are concerned about their neighbors and they have the resources and knowledge to help.

That is what it’s all about—caring for each other. We’re all neighbors. We all need each other. If we have the knowledge and the resources to make someone else’s life easier, then why don’t we?

I flew across the world to discover that no matter where we are, the secret to a prosperous life is helping each other. That’s how these people’s lives improved. The same goes for all of us.

While in Mozambique, I visited several orphanages and played with many wonderful, loving children. I helped a widow build a latrine by her house. I helped teach children how to sew their own backpacks to carry their schoolwork. Best of all, I interacted with happy, incredible, strong people who have been through so much more than I am likely to ever experience. These people face so many obstacles in their lives for no reason other than where they happened to be born, and yet they take on every day with big, bright smiles.