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    VSO - Sharing Skills, Changing Lives

    Where we do it > Ten facts about Mozambique

    • In 2004 an estimated half a million Mozambican children had lost one or both parents to AIDS.

    • Mozambique shares borders with six countries: Tanzania, Malawi, Zimbabwe, Zambia, South Africa and Swaziland.

    • Mozambique is currently building a “unity bridge” across the Rovuma river border to Tanzania.

    • Maputo, the capital city of Mozambique, was originally called Lourenço Marques after a Portuguese trader who explored the area in 1544.

    • The Portuguese first landed in Mozambique at the end of the fifteenth century led by the explorer Vasco da Gama. Because the area was under Muslim control, da Gama impersonated a Muslim to gain audience with the Sultan but was forced to set sail and fire his cannon when the populace began to see through the subterfuge.

    • Mozambique was once the center of the Portuguese slave trade. When slavery was abolished in 1858 slaves still had to serve a twenty year apprenticeship before they were freed.

    • One million people died in Mozambique between 1977 and 1992 due to civil war and famine.

    • Flooding struck Mozambique in 2000 and 2001 dislodging landmines that had been buried in the ground during the years of war.

    • Mozambique is the only member of the Commonwealth that has never had any constitutional link to the British Empire or to another Commonwealth member. The country was admitted in 1995, when South Africa was readmitted following the fall of apartheid, so that members could help Mozambique recover from losses incurred by opposing minority white regimes in Zimbabwe and South Africa.

    • Mozambique is the only country to feature a gun on its national flag, which is shown with a hoe and a book on a red triangular background to symbolise the country's struggle for independence and its commitment to education and agriculture. There are also green, yellow, white and black stripes to symbolise respectively fertile land, mineral resources, peace and the African continent. 
    Bangladesh
    Cambodia
    Cameroon
    China
    Eritrea
    Ethiopia
    Gambia
    Ghana
    Guyana
    India
    Indonesia
    Kenya
    Malawi
    Maldives
    Mongolia
    Mozambique
    Namibia
    Nepal
    Nigeria
    Pakistan
    Papua New Guinea
    Philippines
    Rwanda
    Sierra Leone
    South Africa
    Sri Lanka
    Tajkistan
    Tanzania
    Thailand/Burma
    Uganda
    Vanuatu
    Vietnam
    Zambia
    Zimbabwe

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