Our story in Mozambique

It was scenes like this that stirred Vila Maninga into being and action in the 1990's. These malnourished children were scavenging grain on the paths. At this point, after the war had ended in 1992, Mozambique was declared the poorest country in the world.

But the origins of Vila Maninga dates back to 1969 when Frikkie & Juanita de Jager, Zimbabwean missionaries began working alongside local churches in central rural Mozambique. They did this throughout the wars fo independance in Zimbabwe and Mozambique and the civil war in Mozambique.

In 1982, through a chance encounter helping a couple, they were given a farm in Zimbabwe. Working with the local churches, they set up Manhinga Village - homes for foster children and a Primary school. Word of their work spread and in 1990, the local Mozambican government gave them a 1,000 hectare derelict old portuguese tobacco farm in order to begin a similiar project.

The community and farm was initially registered in the local church's name - AFM. From the beginning, various local church Pastors and elders were instrumental in the development of VM; two of which were Pastor Chiminhya and Elizeu. The first few years of the project were tough; sleeping under trees, coping in very harsh and basic conditions and building the project literally brick by brick with no machinery.

But this is how Vila Maninga slowly began. Vila Maninga means 'a village of a place of refuge' in the local language Shona and this is exactly what it is.

Today, Elizeu still works for VM looking after many of the foster children with his wife aswell as overseeing many other aspects of VM. Pastor Chiminhya sadly died in 2009 but the legacy of his commitment to VM lives on through his grandchildren who are still supported by the project. Through the hard work of all these people and countless other teachers, workers, elders and volunteers, today VM is a haven, an oasis of hope benefitting just some of the most at risk chldren and adults in rural Mozambique.