Programmes
Our Approach
Ages 7–17 · Urban and rural Mozambique
Opening Doors
Opening doors for children and young people through sport, the arts, environmental education and active citizenship.
The problem
For a growing number of Mozambican children and adolescents, school alone is not enough to help them thrive. The public system is under pressure - overcrowded classrooms, teacher shortages, double and triple shifts, and a lack of basic infrastructure and learning materials - leaving little room for anything beyond the curriculum. These conditions, combined with dropout and a shortage of safe spaces and positive references, limit children's futures.
"There can be no transformation if girls cannot go to school for fear of harassment and rape." — All Girls 2025 report
The approach
An 8/9-month cycle that complements school rather than replacing it. Basketball and sports, arts, environmental education, and well-being sessions; citizenship workshops bring themes to the table ranging from social skills to financial literacy, sexual and reproductive health, climate change, and cultural identity. It runs in Maputo, Inhambane, and Manica.
The change
Children who gain life skills, civic awareness and confidence; girls who find a safe space and a language for their rights; sport understood as a movement of consciousness, not only physical activity; school retention supported alongside MINEDH.
Initiatives that make up the programme
Mini-basketball Circuits
Ages 7–11 · Maputo city & province
Periodic activities combining mini-basketball, skill stations and technical competitions, performative arts workshops (drawing, painting, dance), and talks on biodiversity and other relevant themes. Each cycle runs up to three months and is aimed at girls and boys aged 7 to 11, drawn from schools, neighbourhood groups, academies and clubs across Maputo city and province.
All Girls
Girls 12–17 · Maputo city & province
For girls only, it could easily be called "Their Space". Between basketball games, technical circuits, conversations on sexual and reproductive health, self-defence classes, talks on biodiversity and renewable energy, dance classes and more, it is a safe space for socialising, empathy and friendship, and for promoting basketball and healthy habits among adolescents aged 12 to 17. It currently covers Maputo city and province.
Tambara Kulota
Macossa–Guro–Tambara · Manica · with Associação NATURA
The Macossa & Tambara landscape covers conservation areas of exceptional importance at provincial, national and international level, holding habitat and biodiversity of crucial ecological value for Mozambique. We partner with Associação NATURA, which holds a 15-year mandate to manage and restore this ecosystem and to build community development programmes around it. Within that frame, "Tambara Kulota" (Tambara already dreams!, in Sena) is one of the responses to the challenges on the ground. These mini-basketball and life-skills sessions aim to engage children and adolescents in healthy practices and in awareness of the local biodiversity, its importance and its value.
António Azevedo & Hernani Mussá Development Camp
Ages 12–17 · 6 editions since January 2019 · Maputo
An initiative that identifies and develops young basketball talent aged 12 to 17, exposing them to integral training: sharpening both their citizenship competencies (life skills) and the technical skills the game requires. During the camp the student-athletes are guided by qualified coaches, national and international, and by local and foreign players, active and retired. Six editions have been held to date; the first took place in January 2019 in Maputo, with 32 athletes (girls and boys) and 8 coaches.
Malamba & Mazuene Kulora
Inhambane Seascape · with NATURA · first edition 2025 in Mazuene
At the heart of Mozambique's breathtaking Inhambane Seascape, recognised globally for its exceptional marine biodiversity, lies a pressing challenge: ensuring that the children of Malamba and Mazuene have access to quality education, life skills, and opportunities that can break the cycle of disadvantage. This is what Mazuene & Malamba Kulora is about, a collaboration between NATURA and Still Standing, intending to reach 500 children across two primary schools and the broader youth community, integrating sport, environmental literacy and life skills into a programme designed not just to teach but to open doors.
Pancho Guedes Citizenship Camp
A tribute to Pancho Guedes
When we decided to create the Pancho Guedes Citizenship Camp, the intention was always to celebrate his work and what he left us as a legacy: humanism, forward thinking, authenticity, multidisciplinarity and the use of available resources. We see mini-basketball and basketball, one of the core activities of our programme, in a very similar way to how Pancho looked at his architecture: an art that combines different artistic fields. More than a game, basketball is for us an exercise of civic and cultural expression that fulfils a social function of human enhancement. The focus is on the human part, something we cannot remove from our head and soul.
Carlos Morgado Citizenship Camp
Since 2014 · year-round
It began in 2014 as a Summer Camp. The aim was to offer activities for children during the school break (December to January), in a safe place where they could make new friends, build bonds, and learn and refine skills, always in a playful, enjoyable way. Over time, as other needs surfaced, we realised the camp should not be tied to one season; without changing its concept, we renamed it from Summer Camp to Citizenship Camp.
Maputo National Park Citizenship Camp
PNAM buffer zone · in partnership with Maputo National Park (PNAM)
An active-citizenship and environmental-education programme designed for children of the buffer zone of Maputo National Park (PNAM), Mozambique's first natural UNESCO World Heritage Site and host to major biodiversity milestones and events. Developed in partnership with PNAM, it combines mini-basketball, performing arts, environmental education and civic training.
Matsequenha Dreams
Namaacha Valley · with Namaacha District authorities, the Matsequenha community & Mozambique Wildlife Alliance (MWA)
A collaboration between the Namaacha District authorities, the Matsequenha community, Still Standing and Mozambique Wildlife Alliance (MWA). This extension of the programme into the Namaacha Valley focuses on educating children from the surrounding schools about biodiversity stewardship through engaging activities, performative arts, capoeira, mini-basketball, complementing MWA's work in animal vaccination and sterilisation.
Henrique Vieira Clinic for Coaches
PE teachers, basketball coaches & aspiring coaches
An ongoing training initiative for Physical Education teachers, basketball coaches, aspiring coaches, and anyone with an interest in sport, basketball in particular. It brings together the different actors of the basketball ecosystem to debate the issues that matter in the discipline, always seeking answers to the gaps in our reality and to the way the game evolves.
Each initiative carries the same approach in a different context — age group, geography, partners — and feeds back into the cycle.
Ages 7–12 · Communities of the Niassa Special Reserve
Joy of Life Niassa
Conservation, health and culture inside Mozambique's largest wildlife reserve.
The problem
Children in the communities of the Niassa Special Reserve grow up in one of Mozambique's most remote regions, far from services and opportunity, where the future of people and the future of wildlife depend on the same generation. A conservation approach that leaves children's education out is fragile.
The approach
In partnership with the Niassa Carnivore Programme, bringing integrated educational content to the schools of communities inside the Niassa Special Reserve. An annual programme, an intensive module of several weeks in different communities, that brings together health, environment, sport, art and local tradition, building from an early age the idea that people and wildlife can thrive together.
The change
Children with health knowledge, environmental awareness and pride in their own culture; the human–wildlife coexistence narrative taking root early; remote-community children given a structured, joyful learning experience they would not otherwise have.
Where the programme runs
Communities inside the Niassa Special Reserve where Joy of Life Niassa has run, in partnership with the Niassa Carnivore Project. Running annually since 2015; specific communities rotate each year. Mavago District joined recently and is not yet shown on the map.