In my humble opinion this kit, also called Mamãe Kit, is a brilliant idea. It consists of a basin to wash the baby, a capulana, the cotton cloth used by mothers to keep the babies warm and to carry them strapped to their backs, two bars of soap, two reusable diapers.

It is given to pregnant women who decide to go to the health center to be assisted during pregnancy.

And at this point I must make a digression. In Mozambique there are two types of medicine: ours, consisting of tablets and injections and  their traditional one, used by the curanderos and based on natural medicines, rituals, religious beliefs.

Coexistence, dialogue, the exchange between the two types of medicine is essentially the great challenge of our project and of all the work that Eni Foudation and Doctors with Africa Cuamm are doing here in Mozambique.

When people are ill here, in the villages, they go to the curandero, pregnant women go to the traditional matron. These two figures should send the patients to the health center of the village and if necessary to the hospital in Palma, and that will be possible only by working together.

The Mamãe kit serves to attract women to the health center with a gift that will be useful once the baby is born. And at the same time they do the test for malaria and check the expectant mothers’ health.