Building bridges between displaced and host communities in Cabo Delgado

Chiúre, Cabo Delgado - In a tree-lined field in Chiúre district, Cabo Delgado province, the sound of clapping and singing fills the air. A group of girls, dressed in bright orange t-shirts and colourful capulana wraps, form a circle. One by one, they step into the middle to dance, smiling as the others cheer them on. At the heart of this joyful scene is 17-year-old Donaterra João.

Donaterra fled her home in Muede in 2020 when men from a non-state armed group swept through her community. “Many of our neighbours were killed. We were too scared to go into the fields for our crops. So we fled,” she says.

Together with her mother, brothers, aunts and uncles, Donaterra found safety in Chiúre, where they settled in a camp for internally displaced people (IDP) on the outskirts of the village. But starting over brought its own challenges.

When Donaterra and her family arrived, they found it difficult to communicate. They spoke a different language from the local residents, and their customs and foods were unfamiliar. The sudden influx of displaced families also placed pressure on limited local resources and services, including water, farmland, healthcare and education. This led to increased competition and mistrust between the groups. Without shared spaces or opportunities to interact, tensions grew in the early days.

“When we first came to live here, language was a huge barrier. It was hard to make friends. People were unfriendly to us as outsiders,” Donaterra explains. “The groups did not mix.”

Across Mozambique, more than 700,000 people are displaced due to ongoing conflict in Cabo Delgado, as well as climate-related disasters in central provinces. In many areas, host communities view displaced families with suspicion, sometimes seeing them as outsiders or wrongly associating them with the non-state armed groups they fled from.

To help ease tensions and bring children together, UNICEF and its partner Plan International established a child-friendly space, or multipurpose centre, known as the Club of Peace.

The club brings together children from the IDP camp and local communities to build trust and friendship. Through dancing, games, art, and group discussions, children get to know one another and begin to challenge the stereotypes that divide them.

For Donaterra, the club has made a lasting difference.

“It helped me to make friends with people from different backgrounds,” she says. “We talk about peace and learn that we are really the same. I take that message home and share it with my neighbours in the camp.”

The club also helped her learn the local language, which she now uses confidently in daily life. “It helped me feel like part of this place,” she adds.

At the Club of Peace, Donaterra enjoys dancing most of all. But she also likes drawing and participating in the weekly peace discussions, where the children share their hopes and experiences.

“You cannot hate other people because they are different,” she says. “You must respect them, because we are all the same.”

Thanks to the programme, Donaterra now feels more connected to her new community. “I feel at home here now,” she says with a quiet smile.

The Club of Peace is part of a wider peacebuilding initiative supported by UNICEF and implemented by Plan International, with generous funding from the Government of Norway.

The goal is simple but powerful: to help children heal, connect and lead their communities towards a more peaceful future.