Mozambique: Projecto Utopia

About the local hosting organization

Project Utopia Mafalala, is an independent space that offers different activities for artists and residents of Mafalala. The project brings together different actors of the cultural and creative sector through technical workshops, artistic residencies, ecological activism, capoeira classes, dance classes (from contemporary to traditional) and professional technical advice. Project Utopia has been working to offer a wide variety of activities to meet the needs of emerging and established artists. The project has a studio for different types of artistic manifestations as well a gallery for exhibitions. The center was constructed using 100% of recycled materials collected locally but also donated and respect the typical old and remarkable architecture of the neighborhood using zinc board.

Presentation of the programme

The tasks may vary according to the events the project is organising, but the daily and routine tasks may include: translate documents (Portuguese to English/German and vice-versa); support the communication and marketing work (social media and website management); support with the fundraising activities, including crowd-funding; assist with the artistic and administrative management and planning; engage in ecological activities inside the community, like creating artefacts using recycled material (glass, wood, plastic, etc); If skilled, volunteers can facilitate workshops in different artistic fields that are run by the project.

About the accomodation

Volunteers stay in a Mozambican host family.

About the location

Mafalala is a neighborhood in the Mozambican capital city Maputo and known as the cradle of Mozambican culture, sports and politics. Most of the famous artist, musicians, writers, politicians and athletes were born or lived in Mafalala. This was the neighborhood in which Eusebio da Silva Ferreira was born and grew up. The first Mozambican president, Samora Moises Machel lived here before taking the long journey for the Mozambican Liberation Front. This is also where Jose Craveirinha, the most popular Mozambican writer, was born. Mafalala offers easy access to diverse kind of facilities like banks, including ATM, internet access, hospitals/health care centres, local transport from one place to another (especially between home and work placements), shops and entertainment.

Requirements

The project accepts of all type of volunteers as long as they are willing to cooperate with them and believe in the purpose they are pursuing. Additionally, it would be great if volunteers: love communicating in whatever language; have manual skills (painting, drawing, crafting skills, etc); are preferably between 18 to 35 years old; are passionate about community work; are open to learn and to share personal experience; are active and creative; show interest in learning about the social and community context.