EQUIP MOZAMBIQUE
Discover. Partner. Innovate. Empower.
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Programs and results
What we aim to solve
Mozambique is one of the least developed countries in the world based on the Human Development Index, which evaluates economy, health, and education to determine how well a nation is doing. We address these issues by forming partnerships with Mozambican leaders and empowering them to address the areas they see in their own communities. We often use holistic or integrated development approaches that address systemic issues from a multi-disciplinary approach.
Our programs
What are the organization's current programs, how do they measure success, and who do the programs serve?
Restoring Hope Sewing School
Restoring Hope is a sewing school for disadvantaged women, especially widows and single mothers. Through the course of the school, the women learn sewing skills, are emotionally rebuilt, are given a strong community, and through the sales of their work they are able to graduate from the program with their own sewing machines. Graduates of Restoring Hope are establishing daughter schools in their communities using the same curriculum.
Fountain of Life Bible App
Fountain of Life is a mobile app with audio Bibles and other Christian resources in over 100 African languages. The goal is to distribute the translated and recorded Bibles to as many people as possible to empower the church in Africa.
Biblioteca Beireano Library
Bibliteca Beireano is a public library open to the community. It contains a wide variety of books for empowering people to improve their lives, and is the only community library in the city of Beira that allows books to be checked out with resources in Portuguese and English. It also has programs and initiatives to promote literacy and provide a safe space for school-aged children.
Consultare Health App
Consultare is a mobile app designed to increase education of medical and health issues. The interface is designed to be useful for a low-literate population to help them self-diagnose their health problems and find effective solutions.
Farmer Agent Management System
The Farmer Agent Management System, or FAMS, is a digital management solution for medium-sized agribusinesses who work with networks of 1.000 or more outgrower (smallholder) farmers. FAMS streamlines agricultural processes and uses a LEAN management model to make systems more efficient and provide improved support to smallholder farmers. FAMS includes 8 plugin modules to bring ICT solutions to the Mozambican context.
Innovation Center
The Innovation Center exists to train, equip, and empower Mozambican entrepreneurs in every step from ideation to implementation. With multiple events, courses, and programs ranging from weekend seminars to to 6-month incubation experiences, the Innovation Center has been able to help dozens of Mozambicans find ways, not only to make money, but to create a positive impact in their communities at the same time.
Juris Law and Rights Campaign
The Juris mobile app provides access to simplified Mozambican law to educate the population about their rights as protected by law. Juris includes a complaint mechanism to report injustice that connects to our support network to provide assistance. Beyond the app, Juris campaigns include radio, social media, training, and visits to the most remote communities in our region to promote law and human rights education.
Where we work
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Our Sustainable Development Goals
Learn more about Sustainable Development Goals.
Goals & Strategy
Learn about the organization's key goals, strategies, capabilities, and progress.
Charting impact
Four powerful questions that require reflection about what really matters - results.
What is the organization aiming to accomplish?
The goal of Equip Mozambique is to bring about lasting change--economically, educationally, and spiritually--through empowering Mozambicans of character to be the change they long to see in their own nation.
We strive to bring the Biblical concept of peace, especially as revealed in the rich Hebrew word “Shalom”. Its meaning is deeper than simply the absence of conflict, and is much better understood as the presence of wholeness. In this fallen world, nearly everyone has experienced some kind of brokenness, but this is not how we are meant to live.
Our purpose is to impact and heal whole systems that are holding people back from reaching their full potential, from experiencing wholeness and Shalom.
Equip Mozambique is so much more than a collection of projects. We are building a team of Mozambicans who confront broken systems and innovate solutions that bring Shalom. That can look very different in various contexts, but always with a focus on long-term impact that fixes the myriad of problems in many people’s day-to-day realities.
What are the organization's key strategies for making this happen?
1. Discover
Before real learning can take place, we often have to realize how much we don’t know. We seek to ask far more questions than we answer and help others with their vision before we ask for help with ours. In a culture accustomed to being told what to do, we’ve found this humility is the best way to approach discovery, and it gives Mozambicans the freedom to tell us about pitfalls and potential issues.
In the process of discovery, we seek to spend a lot of time with the local Mozambicans, seeing first-hand how business transactions, family obligations, and their surroundings impact them. Through these friendships, we can often discover which broken systems are affecting them personally, and work together to come up with a solution.
2. Partner
After we discover an issue that needs Shalom, the next step is to find out who else has seen that problem and is also passionate to do something about it. The two keys to partnership are to realize that:
1. I’m probably not the only person who has struggled with this, and
2. I probably can’t fix it by myself.
We believe that God created us to need each other, as is beautifully explained in 1 Corinthians 12 where Paul describes the Body of Christ. We each have our unique gifts, abilities, and passions that God has given us to make a difference, but no one can do everything alone. Only through partnership with a wide variety of individuals, organizations, Mozambicans, and foreigners can we truly bring Shalom to the broken systems that we confront.
3. Innovate
Once we have discovered the opportunity and partnered with a person or organization that has the same desire to bring transformation, we put our heads together to innovate a creative, long-term, system-transforming, and sustainable solution. Having a team with a variety of cultures, backgrounds, and skills helps immensely with this step, as new perspectives can see amazing solutions that might have otherwise been overlooked.
One of our key verses is John 15:16 - "I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit—fruit that will last". With every potential solution that we explore, we ask if it will have lasting fruit and long-term impact. We rarely engage in activities that will only help someone today, instead we always seek to transform them for the rest of their life.
4. Empower
What Mozambicans need is holistic, empowering, dignifying development work as opposed to the humiliating relief/handout model that robs the poor of the chance to be part of their own transformation. To empower these nascent national leaders, we provide:
1. Training in a wide variety of fields,
2. Strategic partnerships to help in any areas where we don't already have skills,
3. Access to tools for whatever needs to be done, and
4. Connections to funding sources when necessary to help Mozambican leaders implement and grow their solutions.
What are the organization's capabilities for doing this?
We have an excellent team of strong Mozambican leaders who have caught the vision and are passionate about sharing their newfound abilities with others. We also leverage support and training from the West to continue empowering more leaders who then multiply everything they receive.
What have they accomplished so far and what's next?
Sewing School
We continue to teach up to 40 women a year. In addition to our school, we have trained up teachers to start 12 other daughter sewing schools in our city. Our next goal is to plant schools outside of our town and reach more women in need outside of our immediate community. We are exploring our options to export sewing school products internationally.
Library
We have gained great popularity in our community, and we are working to expand the children's section due to the high use it receives. We also plan to start creating, printing, and distributing children's books as well to foster early literacy interest.
Tech Team
Our team has successfully developed 7 digital solutions for the Mozambican context. We are working to expand the use of Juris and FAMS nationally with plans to grow internationally in the coming years.
How we listen
Seeking feedback from people served makes programs more responsive and effective. Here’s how this organization is listening.
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How is your organization using feedback from the people you serve?
To identify and remedy poor client service experiences, To identify bright spots and enhance positive service experiences, To make fundamental changes to our programs and/or operations, To inform the development of new programs/projects, To strengthen relationships with the people we serve, To understand people's needs and how we can help them achieve their goals
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Which of the following feedback practices does your organization routinely carry out?
We collect feedback from the people we serve at least annually, We take steps to get feedback from marginalized or under-represented people, We aim to collect feedback from as many people we serve as possible, We take steps to ensure people feel comfortable being honest with us, We look for patterns in feedback based on demographics (e.g., race, age, gender, etc.), We engage the people who provide feedback in looking for ways we can improve in response, We act on the feedback we receive, We tell the people who gave us feedback how we acted on their feedback
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What challenges does the organization face when collecting feedback?
It is difficult to get the people we serve to respond to requests for feedback, It is difficult to find the ongoing funding to support feedback collection, It is difficult to get honest feedback from the people we serve, It is difficult to identify actionable feedback
Financials
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Operations
The people, governance practices, and partners that make the organization tick.
Connect with nonprofit leaders
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- Analyze a variety of pre-calculated financial metrics
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Connect with nonprofit leaders
SubscribeBuild relationships with key people who manage and lead nonprofit organizations with GuideStar Pro. Try a low commitment monthly plan today.
- Analyze a variety of pre-calculated financial metrics
- Access beautifully interactive analysis and comparison tools
- Compare nonprofit financials to similar organizations
Want to see how you can enhance your nonprofit research and unlock more insights? Learn More about GuideStar Pro.
EQUIP MOZAMBIQUE
Board of directorsas of 01/31/2024
Timothy Mengler
Crystal Lake Vineyard Church
Term: 2022 - 2025
Lucas Amosse
United Church of Christ- Mozambique
Norita Binda
Equip Mozambique
Ron McClanahan
Tim Mengler
Crystal Lake Vineyard Church
Jon Reinagel
Equip Mozambique
Carla Reinagel
Equip Mozambique
Eugenio Makuyana
Equip Mozambique
Kacie Starr Long
Sew Hope
Samuel Mwangi
Pipes International
Tinashe Murwisi
Expat Link
Amy Mengler
Crystal Lake Vineyard Church
Board leadership practices
GuideStar worked with BoardSource, the national leader in nonprofit board leadership and governance, to create this section.
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Board orientation and education
Does the board conduct a formal orientation for new board members and require all board members to sign a written agreement regarding their roles, responsibilities, and expectations? Yes -
CEO oversight
Has the board conducted a formal, written assessment of the chief executive within the past year ? Yes -
Ethics and transparency
Have the board and senior staff reviewed the conflict-of-interest policy and completed and signed disclosure statements in the past year? Yes -
Board composition
Does the board ensure an inclusive board member recruitment process that results in diversity of thought and leadership? Yes -
Board performance
Has the board conducted a formal, written self-assessment of its performance within the past three years? Yes
Organizational demographics
Who works and leads organizations that serve our diverse communities? Candid partnered with CHANGE Philanthropy on this demographic section.
Leadership
The organization's leader identifies as:
The organization's co-leader identifies as:
Race & ethnicity
Gender identity
Transgender Identity
Sexual orientation
Disability
Equity strategies
Last updated: 01/31/2024GuideStar partnered with Equity in the Center - an organization that works to shift mindsets, practices, and systems to increase racial equity - to create this section. Learn more
- We disaggregate data to adjust programming goals to keep pace with changing needs of the communities we support.
- We employ non-traditional ways of gathering feedback on programs and trainings, which may include interviews, roundtables, and external reviews with/by community stakeholders.
- We have long-term strategic plans and measurable goals for creating a culture such that one’s race identity has no influence on how they fare within the organization.
- We use a vetting process to identify vendors and partners that share our commitment to race equity.
- We have a promotion process that anticipates and mitigates implicit and explicit biases about people of color serving in leadership positions.
- We seek individuals from various race backgrounds for board and executive director/CEO positions within our organization.
- We have community representation at the board level, either on the board itself or through a community advisory board.
- We help senior leadership understand how to be inclusive leaders with learning approaches that emphasize reflection, iteration, and adaptability.
- We engage everyone, from the board to staff levels of the organization, in race equity work and ensure that individuals understand their roles in creating culture such that one’s race identity has no influence on how they fare within the organization.