Sonia Magaia, (TFT diploma 20216-2017) Founder and General Coordinator of Sinergia Moçambique shared the following two testimonies from her organization that follows TFT methodologies of engagement.
“I am Monica de Alcides, I am part of the school council members at Escola Secundaria Malangatana Valentim Nguenha, I became aware of the project to prevent trafficking, and consumption of alcoholic beverages and other drugs in adolescents and young people in the school. I identified with the cause and volunteered to be part of the activists of the Sinergia Moçambique Organization.
I participated in training on communication skills for behavior change. I started giving lectures and even counselling in school and the community. I was able to influence my husband and our children and we became a united family and began to enter the community where, by being a mirror in the area where we live, we were able to reach other families with boys who had deviant behavior. From then on, there was a change in the people living around us.
In schools, as we gave lectures, we identified several challenges that had to do with the consumption of alcohol and other drugs. And so that students would not be influenced by bullying, we advised them.
There was a transformation in this area. There was a change in students and safety in the school; students now feel comfortable and approach us to understand how they can change, what are the essential points they need for their change. For example, if I am a person who was abusing drugs, what can I do now?” ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….
I am Amando Missias, a student at Escola Secundaria Eduardo Mondlane, in the city of Maputo.
“I would like to leave some ideas about who I am as an activist and what changed in me being part of the Sinergia Moçambique Organization. First of all, I would like to thank you for participating in the training sessions and then giving lectures. And to say yes, they really changed the lives of many colleagues. In my specific case, the lectures on preventing the consumption of alcoholic beverages and other drugs changed the way I see people who consume these products. Before I despised them, I even thought they shouldn’t be part of society, but during the training and lectures, I realized that even my friends used drugs. Through all of this, I learned to live with these people. I now think of them as being normal people because some even end up being family and are everywhere. But I learned to live with them. Some enter this world for pleasure and others for problems. I learned that the important thing is to help them and not judge them.
”WORKING WITH SINERGIA MOÇAMBIQUE ORGANIZATION 7 Fortunately, I had the opportunity to give some lectures on this subject and I helped some by inviting them to participate in the lectures. And really, I think they are topics that should continue to be debated in schools because they end up helping in some way. The consumption of alcohol and other drugs in schools decreases and somehow ends up returning. That’s why we should work hard on this aspect too.
It was great to be part of the Sinergia Moçambique Organization and I learned a lot. And the thing that I would like to highlight is that I can already live with people who consume alcohol and other drugs and I have not let myself be influenced. I really liked this part. Now, I even think it’s a normal thing to live with them because I no longer disperse them, I no longer act badly, I no longer think much because I know that some people are in that world for pleasure and others for problems. But the important thing is to help them or try to understand them.
