Con­tact with the Dutch found­ation Doc­tors for Mozam­bique was made via a former mem­ber of the Board of Trust­ees of the Aumund Found­ation. Har­rie and Birgitta van der Meeren, who teach at the Cath­olic Uni­ver­sity in Beira, foun­ded this organ­isa­tion which awards schol­arships to tal­ented young people from fin­ancially chal­len­ging cir­cum­stances in rural areas of Mozam­bique, who would not have been able to study medi­cine without this sup­port. One spe­cific object­ive is to include women in the schol­arship pro­gramme. Birgitta van der Meeren says, “It is almost impossible for girls from rural regions to become doc­tors. This is one of the con­sequences of the cul­tural back­drop in rural areas, where young girls must still enter into arranged mar­riages and there­fore have no oppor­tun­ity for intel­lec­tual devel­opment.”

Every Janu­ary a new cohort is chosen from around 20 can­did­ates who take part in a three-day selec­tion pro­cess.

Since 2024, the Aumund Found­ation has fun­ded a new cohort each year until gradu­ation. Since 2026, our col­lab­ora­tion has been com­ple­men­ted by a pilot pro­ject: the “Pilot Med­ical Volun­teer­ing Pro­gram at Beira Cent­ral Hos­pital.” In this pro­gram, qual­ified doc­tors who received sup­port from Doc­tors for Mozam­bique dur­ing their stud­ies have the oppor­tun­ity to gain prac­tical exper­ience on the pedi­atric ward of Beira Cent­ral Hos­pital for two years after gradu­ation. Their liv­ing expenses are covered by the Aumund Found­ation. This pro­ject became neces­sary due to the nation­wide hir­ing freeze for doc­tors.