Development of Gogoi – United Church of Christ in Mozambique
Read the latest news from the United Church of Christ in Mozambique on the Development of Gogoi.
July 2011 – January 2012 Report
Gogoi is in an extremely remote area of Mozambique, cut off from Mozambique’s major city and the headquarters of the United Church of Christ in Mozambique (UCCM). The region is heavily impacted by its history and the decisions made by colonial powers from the 1900s. The Mozambique/Zimbabwe border divides the Ndau people and left the Ndau of Mozambique isolated from the rest of their fellow Mozambicans by geography and also isolated from the Ndau in Zimbabwe by an international border. The effect of the isolation and having two different colonizers has left the Ndau in Mozambique far less developed than the Ndau in Zimbabwe.
In order to help this remote area, the United Church of Christ in Mozambique has established the following programs:
Construction of the Church: Following the strategy first used by the missionaries to bring the people to God and educate them, the first building to be set up at Gogoi farm was the
church. Although small in size, it had the power to call the community to worship the Lord. This same church building was also used as a classroom to teach young children, taking them out of the activities of herding cattle and illiteracy.
Construction of the classrooms: Because so many children began attending classes it was deemed necessary to build more classrooms. A lack of funds led to the first two classrooms being built in 1993 out of very precarious materials, i.e. rough wooden poles thatched with grass. In 2008, 
with the financial assistance from Global Ministries, the church managed to build a modern and beautiful building with three classrooms out bricks, roofed with corrugated iron sheets. This has encouraged more children to attend school. The local government was very happy by this very significant contribution by the church to the community and the school building is the best in the area. More is still to be done with the construction of the Administration office and the Headmaster’s house, which is an obligation according to the Mozambican law.
Water: Although water is not very far from the mission, the church found it necessary to bring the water nearer to the school children. Therefore, a well with a manual pump was located at the school premises.
Agriculture: The church has found it necessary to produce food to feed the local people and others and, since this a non-profit project, the products will be sold at a reduced price 
enough to sustain the project. For the agriculture year 2011-2012, and as an experimental step, the church opened a cornfield of approximately 25 acres but only planted approximately 12 acres of corn and two acres of sesame. The fields were ploughed manually and have no irrigation system. The first stage of the corn was very promising, giving hope for a satisfactory harvest while taking into account the technology used.