Both armies used children as soldiers. They took the former soldiers to temporary camps and helped them reunite with relatives or find foster families. But the 21 children at the Mandlakaze camp were seemingly forgotten until 1995, when news of their plight emerged. The centre offers children room and board, schooling, literacy classes and vocational skills. It also helps find foster homes for the younger ones.
Plans are underway to provide the children with psycho-social counselling as well.
But much more needs to be done to heal the psychological wounds of the many thousands of Mozambique's children traumatized by war. With help from DAPP, Jose and Manuelito are now living with a foster family in a nearby village. They help with house chores too, fetching firewood and carrying water from the well. Each month, DAPP provides the family with a sack of maize, four litres of oil and a bar of soap. When the boys arrived, DAPP provided them with sleeping mats and blankets.