Mozambique: DREAM formation course in Maputo for activists and basic health educators.
Right after the IX DREAM formation course from 23 to 27 October, the V DREAM course for campaigners and basic health educators was held in Maputo, also at the Kaya Kwanga Congress Centre. It is the fourth such course to be held in Mozambique.
The course – its attested validity has been recognised for the first time by the Mozambican Health Ministry – targeted not only campaigners and basic health educators of the DREAM programme at work in different centres of the country, but also a group of scouts helping out in the Matola nutritional centre, as well as activists from other associations, governmental and otherwise. Some officials from the Mozambican foreign affairs ministry (the ministry is getting together a reference group on HIV and asked DREAM to support its formation) also attended.
In fact, in Mozambique, there is a growing thirst for knowledge and formation about problems related to the spread of AIDS, and about health education in general, and there are only a handful of entities like DREAM capable of responding to this demand.
The course, which focused especially on basic knowledge about HIV infection and human nutrition, unfolded in a climate of enthusiastic participation and hope, as participants’ comments revealed: “We thank DREAM for coming to save the lives of Mozambicans”; “What I learnt here will help me to help those are not here and who do not believe that HIV is a reality… a reality that is decimating us”; “I thank DREAM because I am HIV-positive and I used to be ashamed, but now I am leaving this course with the awareness that I am not condemned and that I can help others.”