BLOOM – Bridge of Learning: Operation OndA! in Maputo began in the spring of 2013, when Aleksi Wallenius heard that he was elected as ETVO volunteer in Maputo. He wanted to bring Aalto University students from different fields to teach and learn in Mozambique and began to organise the project through Aalto University Student Union. The project was implemented in early 2014, when ten Aalto members headed to southern Africa for one month. They spent two weeks as guests of the local organisation ASSCODECHA in the slum of Chamanculo.
Children on the streets of Chamanculo. (above)// Older children took care of the younger ones. (C) Mariko Landström
Some of the participants used their experience for the university course Sustainable Global Technologies: Facing Local and Global Challenges, which includes a project related to sanitation challenges in Chamanculo, which is implemented in cooperation with the local organisation ASSCODECHA. During the first week on site, we provided the locals with various workshops and intensive courses, such as the English language course, IT course, business workshops, film-making workshop, future workshop, ultimate tournament and a variety of education events for children. In the second week, we organised Waste and Sanitation Hackathon in cooperation with STIFIMO, the common project of Mozambique Science and Technology Ministry and the Finnish Ministry for Foreign Affairs. In the project, the teams consisting of ASSCODECHA’s employees, local young people and the hacker community of the local university spent four days trying to come up with solutions for sanitation challenges in Chamanculo. Our group also formed a team and presented a dry toilet and urban farming concept as example solutions, but did not participate in the actual contest. The winning team was awarded with laptops. The jury included the World Bank consultant, Chamanculo’s local representative of municipal politics and the representative of the Embassy of Finland. On our last day in Chamanculo, we organised a festival where we cooked for everyone and taught various skills. The locals were also invited to participate in the arrangements by offering them food or by teaching their own skills. In the evening, we organised a traditional academic dinner party for the employees of ASSCODECHA in a local restaurant.
QuickRep-team presenting their ideas (above). // Future workshop (C) Caroline Moinel
During our visit, we collected background information for our course about sanitation challenges by visiting local homes, the school and different parts of Chamanculo and interviewed numerous people. When we got back to Finland, we have considered everything that we experienced and aimed at determining the focus for our project. We have decided to study the empowerment of the community and an individual through participatory processes, among other things, and particularly study the use of participatory processes in resolving sanitary challenges. Depending on ASSCODECHA, we will work with them to organise the next hackathon or similar kind of events, or the launching of a dry toilet or urban farming through a participatory process. In general, our wish is to empower the community and change their attitude towards the future and the control of their own life, as well as to improve sanitation in the area. The project is still in progress and slowly taking shape along with our literature research and the wishes of ASSCODECHA.
Teenagers from Chamanculo learning English (above) (C) Caroline Moinel//Aalto representatives and Camilla Nyroth heading back to the city centre in the evening. (C) Mariko Landström
The direction of our project reflects perhaps the biggest culture shock that at least I have experienced in Chamanculo; people live so strongly in the moment that they have no plans for the future. They neither seemed to have the concept of responsibility. People do not seem to take responsibility for their own lives, let alone anything else, and do not assume that anyone else, such as politicians or officials would take responsibility or initiative to improve the state of affairs. No one really seems to expect that things would change. People can name issues that could be changed, which would make them happier, but they have no intentions to change them. Usually, these are small issues, such as having a better house or a better toilet (usually self-made). Surely there are exceptions, and we met a family which had diligently improved their home and even planned to build an indoor toilet, for which they had already acquired the material. Naturally, income levels have effect on this issue.
Children doing Caroline’s hair (above). (C) Mariko Landström // Children learning how to recycle plastic bags (C) Caroline Moinel
Foremost, however, we remember the warmth and kindness of people in Chamanculo, the groups of children seeking attention, the sun and the neatly dressed locals. This experience also made us ponder on whether they are happier than we are.
You can read about our experiences, thoughts and the progress of our project on our blog:
sgtchamanculo.blogspot.fi.
-Mariko Landström and SGT team