Site Placement

After anxiously waiting for this day to come, we finally know where we're going to live for the next two years and who we're going to work for! I'm opening a site in Ancuabe, Cabo Delgado! It's a completely brand new site so I will be the first Peace Corps Volunteer there. It's exciting because I will have the ability to start whatever kind of activities I want to and won't have to live up to the previous volunteer's work.. yet scary/nerve wrecking! 

Site Code: Ancuabe, Cabo Delgado

Size of Site: Small, District town

Organization: Wiwanana

Type of Placement: NGO

New/ Replacement Placement: New

Site mate(s): No

Short description of organizational activities: Wiwanana uses community centered projects to promote health in rural populations. They work to ensure widespread community involvement and support in all of their activities. Areas of focus including HIV/AIDS, tuberculoses, malaria, hygiene and sanitation, nutrition, infant and maternal and child health. They also work in the areas of gender equality and the support/strengthening of local CBOs (community based organizations) and associations.

Requested assistance from the organization:

-Support the organization in strengthening local CBOs and associations

-Assist with projects and programs related to capacity-building of local CBOs and associations including assisting with training community activists on M&E tools, health topics and community intervention and mobilization strategies

-Participate in and assist with small-scale, organizational based research on social-cultural factors that affect public health initiatives.

-Assist organization with developing strategies to incorporate new health-related subjects into their outreach activities.

-Support in the planning of and participate in trainings for staff and focal groups.

-Actively participate in monthly review meetings

Other info:

-Beside Portuguese, I might have to learn Macua also (the local language there)

-Wiwanana has 50 members in the organization

-5 of Moz 20ers are in Cabo Delgado so although I'm the only one in Ancuabe, I'm within an hour to the next closest volunteer. I'm also only a little over an hour away from Pemba beach! Yay!

-Wiwanana's main office is in Chiure, a nearby town where Elizabeth (fellow Moz 20er) is, so I will have a lot of opportunity for collaboration. She will also work for Wiwanana and is my closest neighbor so I've already told her that we're going to be best friends for the next 2 years :) 

-Target groups are teenagers, mothers, people living with HIV/AIDS, and children under 5 yrs old