A great assembly - more than a thousand people - from the Communities of Angoche, Moma and the many villages of Nampula province
Angoche is a coastal city in the province of Nampula, with more than one hundred thousand inhabitants. There has been a Community of Sant'Egidio here for many years, as well as in numerous small towns nearby. A further important presence of Sant'Egidio in this area of Mozambique is in the city of Moma, which has more than three hundred thousand inhabitants and is about 130 km from Angoche. These places are far from Nampula (Moma is more than 200 km away) and the roads are in very poor condition so it is very difficult to travel.
All the Communities present in the area - Moma and neighbouring villages - gathered in the town of Angoche on Sunday 14 July. More than a thousand people convened in a field, under some tents that could not provide shade for everyone. The meeting was marked by great joy, and also by gratitude for such a significant moment of fraternity and sharing in the commitment of these communities to serve the poorest, who share the awareness that no one is so poor that he or she cannot help an other person.
The small towns of Mozambique - and in particular those in the north of the country - feel forgotten by Mozambican society: the newspapers do not talk about them, they appear to be of no significance. On the contrary, they are very important to Sant'Egidio, which has a widespread presence throughout the country and in these areas.
The Communities of Sant'Egidio in the small towns of Mozambique are indeed a point of reference, for many young people and the poor, but they are also regularly consulted by local administrators on social issues, and become a vehicle of culture and a window on the world.
Meeting with the lepers of Nacopa, Namitoria district
Some lepers from Nacopa, a village for lepers not far from Namitoria, were also present at the meeting in Angoche. Their story is very special. Some Portuguese missionaries established a village for lepers here in colonial times,. The government also collected them from faraway areas. Among them were also children. Many did not know their origin. The village grew with the assistance of missionaries until independence day in 1975. When the Mozambican government expelled the missionaries because they were Portuguese, the lepers were abandoned and survived for decades with no resources and often unable to work.
In 2010, Sant'Egidio came into contact with this village, and a friendship has been going on ever since. The houses in which they used to live were badly deteriorated, completely lacking in maintenance, and living conditions were dire. Many of the lepers had arrived there as children, and did not know the villages they came from, hence who they were.. Gradually, Sant'Egidio worked both with emergency aid (mattresses, food, clothing) and with renovation and in some cases the rebuilding of their homes, allowing the village, now full of life, to be reborn.
On the occasion of the large assembly held in Angoche, a group of lepers came to personally thank Andrea Riccardi, who has cared for them all these years, for the help they have received. They handed to him a letter in which they recounted that after being abandoned for decades by all, the friendship of Sant'Egidio was for them a way back to life.
