Joana Clemente is the head of administration and international projects at Helpo. The Portuguese DNGO (Development Non-Governmental Organisation), which registers its 10th anniversary this year, is active in Portugal, Mozambique, São Tomé and Príncipe and Guinea Bissau in the area of community development, with a focus on education and mother and child nutrition. She holds an extremely positive view of the work conducted so far with local governments. Registering both major and minor successes, the organisation has helped improve mother and child nutrition and increase the number of children attending and concluding primary education, attending secondary education and even going on to university.
In what way is Helpo on the ground and how does it operate?
We have teams based in these countries working as local agents in each of the 52 communities in which we are active. Their activity, which includes administrative work conducted with the local authorities, enables us to identify the problems we need to deal with.
Our teams comprise expatriate technicians, volunteers and local personnel based in cities such as Nampula, in Mozambique. However, due to the fact Helpo´s activity is conducted in rural environments, the members of these teams travel to and from these schools and kindergartens on a daily basis to work with the teachers and directors of these establishments.
We only act at the behest of the authorities, subsequent to a joint diagnosis conducted by Helpo and the local governments of the countries in which we work, as it is they who know which are the most underprivileged regions and in need of intervention. It is generally the teachers of the establishments of education and the parent committees who first identify the problems they would like to see resolved.
So what is the main goal of the work conducted by the organisation?
To help the populations of schools and nurseries to achieve levels of wellbeing above those we encountered when we arrived. For this to happen, and to overcome certain shortcomings in relation to the projects, we sometimes work in partnership with Portuguese and local universities. This is an adaptation that guarantees we have the best means of implementation in order to meet our goals.
And in light of the fact Galp recently entered into a partnership with Helpo, what role can this organisation play to ensure this happens?
It can help promote our activities. Galp´s capacity, in terms of resources, can, for example, help us promote the growth and scale of the projects we are working on geared to the granting of secondary education scholarships.
What have been the main successes so far?
We have been working in the area of education for the longest. Only 2% of students in Mozambique get to university. We have already granted 10 scholarships in an attempt to boost this figure, which is a small victory.
Our 19,000 beneficiaries include nursery school children of three years of age up to university students. Children in Mozambique dream of concluding primary education, up to the 7th school year, but not of going on to university, like here. Helping them to achieve this is a major victory. Another success is helping children achieve access to secondary education. We began this work with 12 supported children wishing to do so. We now have almost a thousand children in a project that costs just 35 euros per child per year. However, there are still many more in need of assistance, as the secondary school education network is limited both in São Tomé and Príncipe and in Mozambique. In Mozambique, we are conducting work geared to placing secondary school teachers in primary schools with the support of the government and local authorities, but which has not been easy due to the lack of resources in the country. We are also supplying students with bicycles, with the support of Mozambikes, but there is still much to be done.
With regard to health, we work with undernourished children among other areas. Some cases are extremely serious and include, for example, 18-month old children weighing 1.5 kg who look like they are six months old when they first come to us. Our support helps them to recover after a few months. Once these children begin to develop normally, we feel we have achieved a major success. But we need many more.