The DREAM Programme and children's care: an investment in Africa's future

Children in Africa are still the population group who have the least access to care.
Malnutrition, HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria and lack of hygiene contribute significantly to child mortality on the continent.
The DREAM Programme has always considered paediatric care to be of paramount importance: it is an investment in Africa's future.
Hence the desire to continue to protect and support children who, having been saved from AIDS and other diseases, are beginning their education. Children find it difficult to attend school, often working with double or triple shifts. It is not uncommon in rural areas to still find school groups of up to 80 children at a time, having classes in the shade of a large tree. If a child is visually impaired, it becomes practically impossible to follow lessons, he or she falls behind, and does not even learn to read and write.
So having a first optical centre in the neighbourhood of Maputo, the capital of Mozambique, in an area where the DREAM Programme started in 2002, means attention and support for the generation that is growing up. We want to give back to these kids health, as well as the tools to grow well.
Today, in addition to the outpatient clinic for examinations and eyesight measurements, all strictly free of charge, the first workshop for the production of custom-made glasses for the children of the DREAM programme and its nutritional centres is also opening.
Thanks to several significant donations, children will be able to have their much-needed glasses and to their great surprise, for free!
Indeed, after the prescription, many, unable to afford to buy glasses, give up. Moreover, there are very few centres able to make custom-made glasses and they are only in the central districts of the capital.
A great response to the needs of the most vulnerable comes from the desire to donate something and the ability to work together.