Life in Gaza Province

Alcina Matusse, 76, who is the sole caretaker for her 9-year-old grandson Salvador, is a Habitat home partner in Mozambique’s rural Gaza Province. Her home was built through Habitat’s Orphans and Vulnerable Groups program. ©Steffan Hacker/Habitat for Humanity International

Bob Longino, creative director, Habitat for Humanity International

Like many who live in the rural brush of Mozambique’s Gaza Province, 76-year-old Habitat home partner Alcina Matusse and her 9-year-old grandson Salvador have felt the sting of the region’s HIV epidemic.

AIDS claimed the lives of both of Salvador’s parents. They are among thousands in Gaza who have succumbed to the disease, virtually wiping out a whole generation in some areas of the province.

Alcina calls AIDS “our second war.”

She not only is counted among the many grandmothers who must now raise parentless grandchildren, but she is herself a visible reminder of a past horror. That was the time nearly 20 years ago when armed rebels inflicted violence upon civilians as a means toward their goal of overthrowing the government.

One day at dusk, guerillas with guns and machetes crept into Alcina’s village. She and four of her neighbors were kidnapped and forced to march through the brush toward a secret location. Others were taken from a nearby village. And when the others tried to flee, three were killed. Only two escaped.

After marching all night, Alcina and her neighbors arrived at the secret site.

Their captors told them to go home. But after only one step, Alcina and the others heard the fateful call: “Wait!”

One by one they were called to come forward. One of Alcina’s male neighbors was first.

He was ordered to hold out his hand. The kidnappers lopped it off with a machete. He was told: “’Now go and work twice as hard for your president!’”

Another neighbor was called forward. The captors cut off her ear. “’Now, go and listen even harder to hear the words of your president!’”

Then, it was Alcina’s turn.

When she was brought forward, a kidnapper reached up, pulled on her upper lip and sliced it off with a knife.

‘”Now,’” Alcina says she was told, ‘”go home and show your love for your president by smiling forever for him!”

Alcina has borne decades of suffering. After the loss of Salvador’s parents, she and her grandson lived in a rectangular reed house that leaked badly in the rain. During storms they often had to stand all night to try and stay dry. Salvador would cry. “He would say he didn’t understand,” Alcina said. “So I would hold him and try to keep him quiet and safe.”

Alcina would do odd jobs at other homes – cleaning the yard or preparing farm fields – to earn what little money she could raise for food.

Early in 2011, Alcina and Salvador qualified for a Habitat home as part of Habitat Mozambique’s Orphans and Vulnerable Groups program.

“I knew the house would change my life,” Alcina said.

Habitat built the family a sturdy, decent, two-room house with a metal roof that keeps them dry.

“Before when the rain was coming, we’d worry,” she said. “But now we have a place where we can laugh and talk and we know the rain won’t harm us.”

At the dedication of her Habitat home, Alcina joined the volunteers and builders as they all placed hands on the house and prayed.

“I thanked God for the house,” she said.

“Sometimes, when I am alone, I’ll put my hands on my hips and say ‘I never expected anything like this.’ This home gives me such happiness.”