ALMA Facts & Figures

ALMA Reports Index   • MANNA Centenary (September 2006)   • ALMA Facts & Figures   • ALMA Projects (July 2003)   • Give Hope: Lent 2003   • ALMA & the London Challenge

Keep on Praying, Keep on Giving
Our brothers and sisters in Angola and Mozambique need our prayers! Unlike most of us, they won’t have any opportunities to “get away from it all” this summer. Here are some facts & figures about Mozambique to help us focus our prayers and to target our giving:

Mozambique gained its independence in 1975, but in the Renamo/Frelimo civil war, which lasted 15 years, a million lives were lost and 67% of primary schools were destroyed. Today, the population stands at 18 million, the average life expectancy at birth is 47 years, only half can read and write and the average annual wage is £50. Think on this: giving just £1 per week is enough to pay someone a higher than average annual salary!

There are around 60,000 Anglicans in Mozambique, spread across 260 congregations (that’s an average congregation of 230 people!) with only 69 priests between them (around 870 parishioners per priest).

Portuguese and Prawns
The official language of Mozambique is Portuguese. In Portuguese, the word ALMA means “soul.” And evangelism – saving souls – is the main concern of the church in Mozambique. Saving souls isn’t just about the hereafter, though, it’s about the here and now – and that’s why ALMA exists.

Mozambique’s main export product is prawns – so next time you eat a prawn salad, you might care to spare a moment to pray for the people who worked so hard to produce your prawns... and to compare how much you paid for your prawns to a typical Mozambican worker’s annual salary of £50.00 – you could change someone’s life just by giving away the price of a packet of prawns!

ALMA: More Information

Adapted from information supplied for an ALMA General Knowledge Quiz