The People of Gorongosa

April 26, 2007 | Pulitzer Center

Residents of Vinho must go across the Pungue River by dugout canoe to get to their jobs or to the health clinic in Chitengo Camp.

A boatman poles past a homemade fish trap on the Pungue River. Image by Jeffrey Barbee. Mozambique, 2007.

The Vinho village is one of the closest to Chitengo Camp, just across the Pungue River. Many of the villagers have jobs in the park, and the Carr Foundation has promised a new school and health clinic for the community.

Twelve-year-old Erde Nyalongwe and the boy in the background, 11-year-old Tonga Cardoso, are best friends. They dont have any shoes expect for one pair, three sizes too big, so they each wear one, and share them. The Carr Foundation believes that a revived Gorongosa National Park will improve the living conditions of the people who live around it.

A woman carries sorghum, beets, parsnips and other vegetables grown in fields on Gorongosa Mountain.

Marie Vainha, 12 is part of the Sadjungira community, located on the lower slopes of Gorongosa Mountain.

An estimated 150,000 people live in and around Gorongosa National Park.