Mozambique makes steady progress on injury prevention
In the past two weeks a number of important developments related to injury prevention have taken place in Mozambique. The results of a situation analysis of medico-legal services for victims of sexual violence was presented to an audience of some 150 people and televised nationally. This reflects a growing recognition of the need for strengthening such services in the country. In the coming months a plan will be developed to do that using the WHO Guidelines for medico-legal care for victims of sexual violence. During the same week, staff at the Faculty of Medicine and the School of Public Health of the Eduardo Mondlane University made plans to enhance teaching on injuries and violence prevention using TEACH-VIP, WHO's modular curriculum for injury prevention. Planning meetings and training of trainers took place using the TEACH-VIP curriculum. In a separate meeting government representatives from a wide variety of Ministries were presented with a comprehensive report on firearm-related violence in Mozambique which, while showing a relatively low rate of firearm-related injury, makes a number of recommendations to government regarding violence prevention. Following input and comment from the various Ministries this report will be finalized.