Mauritania

FELM has traditionally operated abroad directly with local partners, most of which are churches. From 2005 onwards, however, FELM has been supporting the Lutheran World Federation (LWF) country project in Mauritania.

The officical religion of Mauritania is Islam, and Christian missionary organisations cannot work in the country. Nevertheless, the work of the LWF is approved and appreciated by the Mauritanian government.

Fighting against desertification

Drought attacked Mauritania severely in the 1970's and the government asked the international organisations for emergency aid. The LWF responded to this request in 1974.

The drought resulted in trees dying, and the sand was threatening to cover easterns suburbs of the capital Nouakchott.

The LWF is working together with the local organisations against desertification: the spreading dunes are stopped by using branches of shrubs to erect fences. The man in the picture above is making a fence in the village of El Ghachouat.

Gradually, the area can then be planted with bushes and trees. This is how a green belt has now been created around Nouakchott.

The rights of women and children are given a priority

The basic task of the LWF in Mauritania is to fight poverty. Literacy and education are the basis of development. Groups of women have used microloans to found shops, mills, and vegetable patches in the villages. Women in some villages earn money by making traditional craft items.

In the 1990's, the Mauritanian authorities invited the LWF to improve the social conditions in the country. This is done by educating the people about the dangers of female genital mutilation, about the rights of women and children in general, and about the right to education.

Godparent donations from abroad help girls get to school

Traditionally, girls in Mauritania have found it difficult to get an education, because it is the girls who need to fetch water and take care of several other household chores. When educating all the children is too expensive for a family, which happens often, it is typical that the parents prefer to educate their sons instead of their daughters.

Basic education is free in Mauritania, but everyone must pay for the books and other school items. Whatismore, secondary schools and sixth forms are in towns far away from the villages.

There are no school transportation systems, and school children from distant villages must live in families of their relations or in dormitories.

In the autumn of 2008, the LWF began a campaign to have more girls in the schools. FELM is assisting 1,000 girls financially both through the Celebration Collection and through godparent donations.

Food aid when the harvest is not enough

When a drought makes the harvests too small or the locusts eat the grain, people leave their villages and look for help and income in the cities. There is, however, little work in the urban areas, and children, in particular, face malnutrition when there is a food shortage.

The LWF has founded food stations for children with malnutrition where they can get a meal once a day. When the food situation in a region has improved, the station is moved elsewhere where help is needed.

The HIV and AIDS have not spread in Mauritania to the same extent as in certain other African countries. Statistically speaking, only less than 1% of Mauritanians are HIV positives. The LWF is working with the local organisations to spread information about the HIV and sexually transmitted diseases.