Shared love of music links BC choir and Mozambican village

Through their shared love of music, a choir in Canada and a small village in Mozambique have become magically interwoven over the past decade. The village, Kapasseni, has come back to life through a project started by two Mozambican refugees, Joseph and Perpetua Alfazema, who came to live on Canada’s west coast in 1984.

The all-volunteer Kapasseni Project in Canada works hand in hand with the Kapasseni Society in Mozambique to assist the village and the surrounding area. Today, Kapasseni has a five-room school, a breakfast program, two wells, a health centre, eye care, HIV/AIDS education, a food orchard, a corn grinding mill, and a budding community economy, and there is energy and hope in the village.

Born and raised in Kapasseni, Joseph fled Mozambique as a teenager early in the war, eventually being sponsored by a Lutheran Church to come to Victoria, BC. Perpetua joined him in 1986 and the couple found work as hospital cleaners, and started to raise their children, Maza, Rafael, and Sara. They kept the memory and traditions of their homeland alive through Victoria's Mozambique Choir, which they founded with their children.

The 30 year war destroyed schools, hospitals, cropland, churches, roads and the ability of the people to live healthy, self-sufficient lives. When Joseph and Perpetua visited Mozambique in 1994, arriving in Kapasseni after an 8-hour walk along a dirt road, they found a village in ruins. The chief, Francisco Semente, asked if the couple's friends in Canada could help the village build a school so as to provide a future for the children and to help with healthcare, water wells, and spiritual support.

Perpetua and Joseph took the request to their friends at Redeemer Lutheran Church, which formed the Kapasseni Project Committee. Then, during the Victoria Folkfest intercultural festival in 1998, Joseph and Perpetua’s Mozambican Choir shared the stage with the Gettin' Higher Choir (GHC), now a large community choir directed by Shivon Robinsong but at the time, a small choir singing mostly South African freedom songs. Several months later, the Mozambicans collaborated with the GHC on its first benefit concert for The Power of Hope, which began in 1996 as an innovative idea to build a creative, heart-centered community with teens and adults who care about the future and has since grown into a multi-faceted program with organizations in both Canada and the U.S. A few months later, GHC held a benefit concert with Canadian singer Ann Mortifee that raised almost $11,000 - enough to launch the Kapasseni project. Since then, the choir has held eight more concerts to benefit Kapasseni. 

With donations from the Victoria community and other Canadian groups and help from many volunteers, Joseph and Perpetua made annual trips to Kapasseni. The work also changed the couples’ lives. Perpetua went to college to become a social worker, and set up the "Kuwangisana" home based care project for people living with HIV/AIDS, chronic diseases and poverty, now supported in part by the Stephen Lewis Foundation. Joseph attended Concordia Lutheran Seminary in St. Catharines, Ontario, and became an ordained minister, assigned for service in Mozambique. In August 2006, they moved back to Mozambique, and now live in Sena Township, 22 kilometres from Kapasseni.

The project’s work is accomplished through a partnership between Redeemer Lutheran Church’s Kapasseni Project Committee and the GHC, working with other volunteers and partners, with Joseph and Perpetua, and with the Kapasseni Society (in Mozambique) to raise funds and assist the people of Kapasseni. The work is always done with the partnership and approval of the local community and chiefs. Near to Kapasseni, the areas of Sena and Caia are now also being assisted. 

The Alfazema’s story has been told in the televised documentary, Journey to Kapasseni, produced by Across Borders Media in Victoria. As well as its major concerts, the GHC lends their voices to support a variety of community events in British Columbia.

This story was prepared from information on the GHC website. Thanks to my friend, Lowell Ann Fuglsang, a member of the choir, for telling me about this wonderful collaboration. For more information: 

Kapasseni Project, c/o Redeemer Lutheran Church, 911 Jenkins Ave, Victoria, British Columbia V9B 2N8 CANADA. Email. 

Joseph and Perpetua Alfazema, CP 737, Beira, Mozambique.

 

 

UPDATE: A page has been created on Give Meaning to allow individuals to support the Alfazema's work in Sena. You can reach it by clicking below: 

sena

 

 

 

 


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