How can someone help a country with more than thirty-four million orphaned children, where the average life expectancy is thirty-four years and one-tenth of the population is infected with HIV? “One family at a time,” says Joao Bueno, the area director of Care for Life in Africa.
Care for Life focuses its efforts primarily in the country of Mozambique. A proactive mission statement explains its objective to alleviate suffering, promote self-reliance, and instill hope within the children and families of one of the poorest nations in the world.
Bueno, 50, who earned his MPA from the Marriott School in 2005, recently accepted a proposal from the organization to stay and work in Mozambique full time. After having been sent on multiple assignments in the area, the organization saw just how valuable an asset he is.
“The second Joao stepped in he just opened our eyes to what we could do and showed us the full potential of these people,” says Sylvia Finlayson, executive director of Care for Life.
Bueno’s interest in the development of deprived populations in poor countries has taken him around the globe. In Mumbai, India, he presented a seminar on poverty alleviation to the World Social Forum. And in summer 2004 he went to Mexico City, where he helped establish a microcredit system among hundreds of impoverished families.
Bueno, a native of Belo Horizonte, Brazil, dedicates much of his time to directing the Family Preservation Program. Care for Life’s strategy is to assist struggling households by teaching proper family hygiene, improving sanitation and general health, and motivating children to enroll in school. The lessons are based on creating stable, self-sufficient families.
“The plan is simple but very effective,” Bueno explains. “We use specific indicators to help these people understand how to improve their lives by establishing and attaining goals.”
Households are organized in groups to provide support for one another, and children’s clubs help kids meet their own physical, emotional, and mental needs. By getting the children involved in group activities such as sports, drama, and cultural events, Care for Life plans to see remarkable improvements within the community.
The organization in Mozambique is helping five hundred families in two communities. But with Bueno’s help, Care for Life aims to reach more than six thousand families in twenty-four communities during the next three years.
There is a great sense of ownership of the program by the workers in the field,” Bueno says. “And we’ve also seen a great change in the attitude of the participating community leaders. Everyone is uniting and willing to work hard toward the improvement of this struggling nation.”
To find more information, visit careforlife.org.
