unite moz christians
Unite Moz Christians

MOZaic Upliftment

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WHO WE ARE

MOZaic is an interdenominational network of congregations in South Africa and Mozambique who work together to better the quality of life in Mozambique.  We dream together to assist and equip congregations in the Gaza and Inhambane provinces of Mozambique to realize their vision, develop infrastructure and implement programs to raise the standard of living in communities.

We network with many church groups in Southern Mozambique and explore ways to build their capacity. Our focus areas are church planting, discipleship, food security, water security, health and education. Our headquarters are in Manjacaze.

WHAT WE DO
  1. Church Planting:
    MOZaic helps local church denominations plant churches in rural areas and sponsors leaders to plant churches in a unreached communities.
  2. Bible Training:
    MOZaic uses the Chronological Bible training material to teach rural church plants the message of the Bible.
  3. Leadership Development:
    MOZaic helps Mozambican pastors realize the visions God has for their lives.
  4. Capacity Building:
    MOZaic helps local churches identify needs in the community and assists with ideas to overcome these needs.
  5. Food Security:

    MOZaic has a small agriculture resource and information station in Manjacaze from where we do research on plants which grow well in Gaza and Inhambane provinces. From here we assist communities with food security solutions for their areas,

  6. Ministerial Support:
    MOZaic supports local pastors to realize their visions and this often includes the building of church structures, providing Bible training materials, donating Bibles, showing of the Jesus Film, or transportation like bicycles or motorcycles.
  7. Water and Health Security:
    MOZaic assists different communities differently by working with local government, community leaders and church leaders to overcome the water problems. MOZaic networks with dentists and doctors who assist rural areas during week-long outreaches.
  8. Leadership Development:
    MOZaic networks with dentists and doctors who assist rural areas during week-long outreaches.
  9. MOZaic Marula Oil:
    MOZaic Marula Oil project uplifts the livelihoods of women and their families from communities in rural Mozambique.

1 - Church Planting

The rural churches in Gaza province are few and the doctrine of those that do exist are mostly influenced by traditional African beliefs. MOZaic helps local church denominations plant churches in rural areas and sponsors leaders to plant churches in a unreached communities. The church planting leader will remain there until the newly planted church has mature believers who can teach the message of Jesus.

MOZaic facilitates church planting seminars for leaders involved in church planting and also trains future church planters. It is our hope to plant churches all over the rural areas of Gaza and Inhambane.        

2 - Bible Training

MOZaic’s focus is in the rural parts of Gaza and Inhambane where Mozambicans are often illiterate. MOZaic uses the Chronological Bible training material to teach rural church plants the message of the Bible.  Africa Outreach’s chronological Bible training materials are designed to help train rural African communities in Bible knowledge, clearing up any confusion from traditional beliefs and myths, and help to truly understand the message of Jesus throughout the Old and New Testament. Its a training that helps you u understand the storyline of the Old and New Testament. And helps disciples retell the one message the Bible brings us. The training includes a practical session and an exam.

We visit rural church plants regularly and assist local church leaders with Bible training during week long training sessions, inviting church leaders from all denominations and their lay people.  Mozaic will be training more trainers from rural areas to teach their congregations.

3 - Capacity Building

MOZaic helps local churches identify needs in the community and assists with ideas to overcome these needs. Once needs are identified MOZaic helps the church identify their strengths and skills needed to overcome those needs. We also help with skills development and equip the congregation or community with project planning, project implementation and project management. This includes financial management training and technical assistance throughout the project. In some areas we train churches to manage funds on a computer, but in most through written spread sheets.

4 - Food Security

MOZaic has a small agriculture resource and information station in Manjacaze from where we do research on plants which grow well in Gaza and Inhambane provinces (sandy, well-drained soil with 400mm rainfall per annum, low fertility). 

From here we assist communities with food security solutions for their areas, be it on dry land, for vegetable production or fruit trees. We have identified 40 most valuable plants for the area based on nutritive value, drought resistance and productivity. Communities or induvidual farmers approach us for assistance and we provide information and resources according our ability.

The vision is to become an agricultural resource and information support centre for rural communities. We hope to provide communities with information, hands-on assistance, seeds, better varieties and new varieties of fruit trees, perennials, vegetables, etc. In the Manjacaze community MOZaic helps a local church with a nutrition project that support families living with HIV or HIV orphans.Each family received a well, manure  and a vegetable garden fence while we work with church volunteers to bring nutrition training and health care to the families. This project is due to expand to more families in 2012.

5 - Ministerial Support

Rural Mozambican churches have very little income or resources. Leaders often have no income. MOZaic supports local pastors to realize their visions and this often includes the building of church structures, providing Bible training materials, donating Bibles, showing of the Jesus Film, or transportation like bicycles or motorcycles. Sometimes it is through education like the training of lay people, financial management of churches and capacity building of church boards. We also hope to help local pastors develop a business on the side to sustain themselves.

6 - Water Security

Water is one of the primary needs for any community. People in Gaza and Inhambane have to walk long distances to get to water and even the local rainfall (400mm per annum) is low. Often borehole water turns out to be salty. In some areas the water table is low (5meters) and sweet, in others it is as deep as 150m. MOZaic assists different communities differently by working with local government, community leaders and church leaders to overcome the water problems. In the rural parts we help communities by establishing gutters and reservoirs for all large structures (schools, clinics and churches) while in others we help widows or orphans with boreholes or wells with self-constructed rope and washer pumps.

7 - Health Security

Most communities in Gaza are far away from medical assistance, and most hospitals have very few medical doctors. MOZaic networks with dentists and doctors who assist rural areas during week-long outreaches. There is a huge need for optometrists, dentists and doctors. We are also dreaming of a mobile clinic and medical staff on our team.  Our current involvement is on nutritional education for people living with HIV and local church structures- educating on plants we have identified as the most valuable for the area looking at their medicinal and nutritional values. At the office we have a medicinal garden and a nursery to expose people to plants.

8 - MOZaic Marula Oil

MOZaic Marula Oil project uplifts the livelihoods of women and their families from communities in rural Mozambique.  The MOZaic Marula Oil product range starts with the women and their families who break open the rock-hard marula nut and extract the highly nourishing  kernels from the shell. After the marula kernels are cold pressed, the unrefined marula oil is bottled in Mozambique and Johannesburg, from where it is distributed to agents countrywide. 

Our 100% natural products bring hope to the buyer who applies the oil to their skin and experience a boost in their confidence and self-esteem when they realise the results, and to those who earn an income through the value chain: the mother and their families, the leaders who monitor the quality control process, the workers pressing the oil, the coordinating team and agents who sell the product in the market.

Please support our marula oil project by purchasing your 100% natural skin care products online at
www.marulaoils.co.za.

HOW TO BECOME INVOLVED

MISSION TRIPS

Mozaic prides itself with well organised, well executed short term missions and cross cultural engagements with communities in Mozambique. These engagements are focused on exposure to the Shangaan culture and combined with small projects where we work alongside the community to develop existing projects, infrastructure or teach skills to help the community with identified needs. Each mission is dependent on the needs identified by the local community and the skills of those joining the mission.

This trip is normally a week long mission and lead by team leaders from our networking churches in South Africa. The program is coordinated by Gerhard Erasmus and Mozambican counterparts. Mozaic facilitates up to 8 mission trips annually. Check the calender for future cross cultural engagement opportunities or contact your church’s missions leader or Gerhard for more information.

SHORT TERM VOLUNTEERS:

  • Teaching practical and technical skills such as sewing, welding etc.
  • Drilling of boreholes
  • Help the nutrition project with construction of vegetable garden fences (working with orphans and people living with HIV or at the hospital) and help plant vegetables, perennials and fruit trees.
  • Children’s ministry (playing games, teach lessons)
  • Maintenance (vehicles, generator, facilities, tools, storage, machinery)
  • Construction (there is always construction going on somewhere and one can always join the team with their job at hand)
  • Assist our staff with various jobs
  • Assist our admin personal with skills to improve their computer skills and other admin (some staff speak some English)
  • Assist with vegetable production in our own vegetable garden and take care of animals (rabbits, pigs, ducks and earthworms), hauling manure
  •  Help facilitate teams when they come on outreach.

LONG TERM VOLUNTEERS:

Children’s ministry:

  • Helping with the weekly children’s ministry in Manjacaze
  • Help us develop children’s ministry materials,
  • Assist to train children’s workers during seminars,
  • help develop vegetable gardens for orphans,
  • Assist local Sunday school teachers with creative ideas.
  • Agriculture:
  • Help with research at out resource centre (plants, soil fertility, nutrition),
  • Help develop the seedbank
  • Help us expand our plant varieties,
  • Work alongside and help teach and assist our local agriculture monitor,
  • help teach food security solutions in rural communities,
  • hands-on assistance to expand the nutrition project for people living with HIV and orphans,
  • help teach nutrition and plants at local hospital, work alongside hospital staff to maintain the hospitals garden, help develop perennial vegetable gardens and health posts in the district (36 in total)
  • help facilitate two annual agriculture conferances
  • help with grafting and multiplying and distributing  fruit tree varieties to more communities,
  • Help teach agriculture techniques to improve soil fertility and production.
  • Capacity Building:
  • Help teach local congregation to manage church funds.
  • Help local congregations identify needs in their community,
  • assist them with project planning,
  • help them develop a budget,
  • Assist with project implementation and evaluation. 
  • Help teach business skills to local church leaders and assist them in developing their business to sustain their families.
  • Construction:
  • Help with the development of our training facilities,
  • help with the construction of the church facility in Panda,
  • help with the construction of several new churches in rural areas,
  • Help with the construction of the community centre in Machaila.
  • Help with maintenance of Mozaic’s infrastructure
  • Water Security:
  • MOZaic has a manual drill rig and with the help of a volunteer we will be able to drill more wells for communities and expand the nutrition project faster..
  • This will require to purchase the PVC in Maputo, transporting the materials to the drilling site, coordinate the drilling team and assist the drilling team when they face difficulties and help the assemble a rope and washer pump.
  • Technical skills:
     MOZaic always require people with certain technical skills to assist with training of staff, or community members or church groups. The following are areas of need:
  • Welding skills
  • Sewing skills
  • Mechanical skills
  • Carpentry skills
  • Computer skills
  • Any other skill that would benefit the community
  • Long term volunteers are required to:
     MOZaic always require people with certain technical skills to assist with training of staff, or community members or church groups. The following are areas of need:
  • Apply for a work permit, MOZaic can assist with all the documentation.
  • Learn Shangaan or Portuguese to be able to communicate with Mozambicans. Most men speak Portuguese, so does government and most church leaders we work with. Children learn Portuguese in school, but in rural areas, Shangaan only is spoken by woman and the majority of men. Portuguese courses are available in Maputo or home study courses can be purchased at most book stores.
  • Live with a  Mozambican family for 4 weeks before moving into Mozaic’s facilities. This helps with exposure to local culture, language and establishes relationships with the community.
  • Fill in an application form with a recommendation from your sending church.
  • Use malaria prophylaxes throughout your stay in Mozambique
  • Support themselves financially throughout their stay, but can eat from the garden and help out with production during the year.
  • Other information:

MOZaic can unfortunately not host youth who just finished school. To obtain a yearlong work permit volunteers need a college or university certificate to confirm your training in order to obtain a working visa.  

We have accommodations for short term volunteers in the likes of a reed house and or tents, with beds and mosquito nets and a fully equipped kitchen, pit toilet, outside showers and night guard on the property. We might also rent a house to host long term volunteers.

Most food requirement s can be bought in Manjacaze town, there is a local market with fresh vegetable and fruits. The town also has a bank, atm and garage, electricity and internet.



   CONTACT US

Gerhard (Geraldo) Erasmus -  4geraldo@gmail.com
Website: mozaictrust.co.za
Facebook:  MOZaic Upliftment

 
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