Information > Nakosso and the Learning Centre

Nakosso is a firm of lawyers based in Maputo with an office in Lichinga. They offer services to both the private and public sector in the hope of attracting new tourism and agriculture ventures to the area and to stimulate the growth of the Niassa Province. They also offer a free Ombudsman service which aims to cut through the red tape and bureaucracy faced by entrepreneurs in the area. Find them at www.niassa.info.

As part of their work they oversee the administration and running of the Learning Centre on behalf of the First Lady of Niassa. Working in the office everyday is Nelson (finance guy), Monforte (runner guy), "Dr." Augusto (lawyer extraordinaire guy), Fatima (cleaner woman) and various assorted guards. Augusto is leaving soon to head up a new Nakosso office in Cuamba, and his replacement in Lichinga, Orlando, is already here working alongside Augusto. It is the First Lady of Niassa (the Governor of Niassa's wife) who technically runs the project, and from time to time (about twice from September to December!) she sticks her head in to have a look at what's going on. It is more likely that we will see Auralio, who works for the First Lady and theoretically oversees goings on at the Learning Centre. He is also the person from who we request supplies such as paper, print cartridges and board markers, which, at usual African pace, often take a few weeks to arrive. The Learning Centre consists of three rooms: the English room, the IT room, and a currently empty room as well as a bathroom. The map (right) shows how the Centre is laid out, click on the rooms to jump to pictures of the English and IT rooms. We returned from a holiday in Malawi at the beginning of November to find an air conditioning unit was being installed in the IT room, and so that room is now nice and cool, very pleasant when it's a bit warm outside. There are two guards at the Centre, who work alternate 48-hour shifts! Their job is to unlock and lock the place up, ensure water buckets are kept full, clean the floor and a few other jobs. Because of their long shifts they also have facilities for washing their clothes and cooking meals, often the rather bland but easy to make xima (pronounced sheema), a staple food in Africa.

Update: 7th April 2004 In a drastic cost saving measure we have now moved the Learning Centre into our three bedroom house. This has cut the toal monthly rent in half, from $600 to $300, a fair saving you will agree.