Anan Clinica | P.O.Box 88 | Nacala Porto | Nampula | Mozambique

Stichting Anan Clinica at Bilthoven | the Netherlands | www.ananclinica.com | ananclinica@gmail.com page 1

Health education by theater playsIn August and September 2011 Dutch nurse and

psychology student Jose de Jager quitted her job as

project coordinator with the Dutch Community Health

Services (GGD) and started her big adventure; working

as a volunteer in the Nanatha community for Anan

Clinica. In The Netherlands she worked with ethnic

minorities in sexual health. With her vast experience

we were honored to have her as one of our volunteers.

She is a young woman with a warm and big heart

who has a real passion for Africa and its people.

She had some ‘Africa experience’ when she left The

Netherlands but when she arrived in Nanatha she was

really impressed with the completely different world

she entered. She was both ‘wowed’ and overwhelmed

by the beauty of the beaches, the enthusiastic smiles

of the local people, the huge amount of mango’s and

cashew trees, but also the unimaginable simplicity

of the lifestyle of the Nanatha community. She

immediately forgot about her 30 hours journey and

started with great enthusiasm with her work.

Anan Clinica Newsletter • nr 4 • may 2012 AnanC

linica

Jose worked with our Activistas, an inspiring group of

16 people from Nanatha and the surrounding villages

who help us with health promotion and education.

After consulting several community members, Jose and

the Activistas decided to focus on diarrhea and family

planning in the time Jose was there.

Because of the high level of illiteracy within the

community, Jose wanted to use theater for transmitting

the knowledge rather than using a ‘school setting’.

This was a new initiative and also comes closer to their

traditional way of transmitting knowledge through music,

songs and rituals. The Activistas loved this idea! Jose asked

the Activistas to collect ‘life’ stories from friends and

family about diarrhea and family planning. Together with

the Activistas she chose the best stories for a script.

Because of the illiteracy of the Activistas Jose couldn’t

write a script, which the Activistas could learn from heart,

so practicing took quite a while. But there was sooo much

fun! The Activistas proved to be excellent and natural

actors and musicians. It was very impressive to see them

easily making some super funky songs which everybody

could sing after 5 minutes.

They showed both theatre plays in 5 villages. The plays

were very well attended with an audience of more than

100 people in every village! That means that Jose and

the Activistas have reached more than 500 people with

their plays. Approximately 500 people know more about

diarrhea and family planning. A fantastic result and we

are very proud about this. Thanks a lot Jose, Feliciano

and Activistas!

page 2 | Anan Clinica | Newsletter nr 4

Together anything is possible

What Jose says about her experience:For Jose working and living in Nanatha was a very special

experience, which has enriched her life. “Life in Nanantha

could not be more different from the life we have in the

Western world. People are so happy, cheerful and inviting

all the time. On the other hand, especially in the period

I was there, it was dry and there was not always enough

food for all the people. People got sick easily and the gap

between life and death just seems smaller. This made a

huge impression on me. Most of all I was impressed by

the resilience people showed after facing sickness or

even death…”

page 3

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For donations: 44.68.04.444;

Stichting Anan Clinica at Bilthoven, the Netherlands.

Anan Clinica

Anan Clinica Foundation is a non-religious charity

that aims to increase local knowledge of health issues

and the scope, quality, accessibility, acceptability

and coverage of primary health care services for the

underserved people of the Nanatha community in

Northern Mozambique. Anan Clinica focusses

primarily on health education and basic hygiene facilities

Together anything is possible!There is still a lot to be achieved in the Nanatha

community and the neighboring villages. We are

very happy to announce that 9 new volunteers

are very enthusiastic to go to Mozambique from

April till December 2012. All of them are medical

students at the University of Groningen. They will

all help us to work towards better health of the

Nanatha community. We are very grateful for

their volunteering.

Also interested in contributing to Anan Clinica?Together anything is possible and also your

help will be very welcomed. It can be as simple

(but not less important) as making a financial

donation, volunteering time and knowledge;

even a useful suggestion or good idea can take

us further in helping the Nanatha Community.

If you are interested don’t hesitate to contact us:

ananclinica@gmail.com

For more information about Anan Clinica, please

visit our website: www.ananclinica.com.

For donations 44.68.04.444Stichting Anan Clinica at Bilthoven, the Netherlands

Anan Clinica | P.O.Box 88 | Nacala Porto | Nampula | Mozambique

Stichting Anan Clinica at Bilthoven | the Netherlands | www.ananclinica.com | ananclinica@gmail.com page 4