Saturday, May 16, 2020

Equip Moz on the Global Stage! Making the World a Better Place

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An update from Equip Mozambique!
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We're All In This Together

Hello everyone!

There’s nothing like a pandemic to create some global solidarity! We’re all in this together, and no matter what anyone's personal beliefs are about the COVID-19 virus, no one can deny it has impacted nearly every life on the planet in some way. Here in Moz it has been an exciting month for us to connect with people around the globe to work with us on creative solutions for our community, country, and continent that will last much longer than the pandemic.
Read on to find out more!
Our hardworking ladies have made over 12,000 masks and counting! 
Consultare Update
A big THANK YOU to everyone who contributed to the Consultare health app after our last newsletter! We are very close to launching and we're looking for more local partnerships with the Ministry of Health and international NGOs like Red Cross to help us get it off the ground. Feel free to pass around this pamphlet to anyone you think might be excited to get on board! 
Donate Here to Help Us Finish and Launch!

MIT Hackathon

Jon and some other members of his tech team were privileged to participate in a hackathon (as in Life-Hacks; better ways to do things, not malicious hacking!) through MIT focused on finding viable solutions to Covid-related health issues in Africa. It was encouraging to see 1,500 people from all over the world enthusiastically invest their time, talents, and experience in helping an already struggling continent face this new challenge. So far Africa has had very few confirmed cases, but some experts believe we could be the location of the next big outbreak unless we can stave it off. Jon's hackathon team came up with a great project (see image and description below) and they now have access to experts and mentors from all over the world to help them implement it!
Jon's hackathon team focused on solving the issue of faulty referrals because different hospitals and clinics don't know what other places have available. While the sick person travels from place to place they could be spreading their disease or catching others. 

Social Business Mentorship

Speaking of mentors, I (Carla) was accepted into a very selective Social Business mentorship program! It was founded by Muhammad Yunus, 2006 Nobel Peace laureate, and we believe it will really help us take the sewing school to the next level. 

Since my background is in education, that made it easy to start the sewing school, teach, and create curriculum. However, my business experience was quite limited, so getting the school financially sustainable and having a thriving marketing and sales branch has been a struggle. I’m expecting great things with this mentorship program, and I’m looking forward to all it has to offer! 

Here's a TED Talk they assigned that I felt does a good job of describing how we at Equip Moz try to approach systemic transformation.

Beira United School

We have been part of Beira United elementary school since its beginning in 2018, but now we are even more involved since the lead missionaries went back to the States on an extended furlough. Jon is now chairman of the board and is scrambling to help the school stay afloat even amid the coronavirus craziness. He is also working to help them add on middle-school grades in 2021 and high-school grades in 2022 so that it will eventually be a complete PreK-12 school. All of our experience with getting Equip Moz registered has come in handy, as it has familiarized us with many government offices and processes that are relevant to this project as well.
Kyran with his class before Beira United had to pause for COVID-19

Family

Just like most children in the world right now, our kids are stuck at home and missing school. They have some robust home study materials from Beira United and meet their teachers regularly over Zoom, but they can’t wait to learn in the classroom again and play on the playground with their classmates. Mozambique’s schools are closed at least until the end of May, we’ll see then if it gets extended again or not (our school year runs Feb-Nov, so June wouldn’t be summer break for us like it is in the Northern Hemisphere). In the meantime we’re trying to make the most of family time, reading books, doing puzzles, playing games, and learning skills like how to cook and tend the garden.
Making masks, reading books, and picking cucumbers!

Praise Reports:

  • Praise God we only have 4 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in our city of Beira (all in one family), and even in all of Mozambique the numbers have stayed very low. 
  • That all of our family and team are healthy.
  • For the opportunity to participate in the Hackathon for solutions, and the new community of passionate problem-solvers it introduced us to.
  • For Carla’s acceptance in the Social Business mentorship program.
     

Prayer Requests:

  • That we would continue to be safe from the virus, and that the Mozambican medical facilities will be sufficient to meet the needs if there is a larger outbreak.
  • That the Mozambican economy will bounce back quickly after all this is over and that it won’t lead to widespread hunger and increased poverty.
  • That we will be able to empower the Beira United school staff to tackle the new challenges they are facing. 
Thanks for reading, please remember us in your prayers! 
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Thursday, April 2, 2020

Equip Moz finding opportunities and solutions!

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An update from Equip Mozambique!
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Unprecedented Times
Creative Solutions
How Equip Mozambique is responding to the COVID-19 crisis
While the whole world is in turmoil with the global pandemic, here in Mozambique we’re doing our part to be a part of the solution! On Monday our president declared a state of emergency but not yet a full lockdown, so many of our activities are able to continue. In fact, some of these problems have turned into even greater opportunities for us to be a light!
Alex is excited to be able to help his community and country!
Face Masks with the Sewing School
We have received orders for thousands of face masks for medical workers, so we mobilized our substantial team of graduates to make them from home! This way we can avoid large gatherings AND provide an important public health service. We even received one order that came along with a donation of 12 sewing machines, so that was a huge blessing to the school! 
The graduates came in small groups to be trained how to make the masks then took materials and patterns home with them.
Launching the Health App
We started creating an app a while ago to help educate people about health issues, but we were unable to finish it because of lack of funding and other more urgent projects pushed it down the list. Now it’s back to top and center as a priority, and we want to finish and launch it within the next couple weeks. Thankfully, our programming team can also work from home! This will provide crucial information on how to avoid catching the coronavirus and what to do if they suspect they have it. The app also contains advice on nutrition, first aid, and over 100 other diseases, so we hope that it will help many people take better care of themselves! 
Donate Here to Help Finish and Promote the Health App!
Image source
Bible / Discipleship App
All religious gatherings are cancelled, but most people can still access God’s Word on their phones! We want to run a campaign to get more people to download and use our Fountain of Life app during their time at home, so they can continue being fed spiritually even while unable to gather with other believers.
Library Checkouts
We no longer let people sit in the library and read, but we have kept the door open and increased the amount of check-outs considerably! Again, quarantine is a perfect time to read and grow, and we’re thrilled to help so many in the community pass their time in a meaningful and positive way.

Praise Reports:

  • That so many of our ministries are so well suited to help in this time of crisis.
  • That our team has been able to stay relatively healthy (Jon was sick for a few days, so we quarantined the family for a couple weeks, but we're all better now).

Prayer Requests:

  • That the coronavirus will not spread widely in Africa where the medical facilities would not be able to be much help.
  • That we will be able to get the funding to finish and promote the health app.
Thanks for reading, please remember us in your prayers! 
Donate Here to Help Finish and Promote the Health App!
P.S.
MANY THANKS
to everyone who donated to the fundraiser in March for Estrela's new sewing school! The campaign finished out completely funded and we're working on starting construction as soon as possible!
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