In all the provinces at war, literacy programmes for adults are
being encouraged, and thousands of people are now learning to
read and write. Meanwhile, special programmes for uplifting
the cultural and political level of our cadres as well as pedagogic seminars are being organized continually. Therefore, in
our ranks the struggle against illiteracy and ignorance is the
task of everybody.
Ill - III medical assistance
The need to provide our guerrillas and the people with the minimum medical assistance has forced us to expand our medical
programmes which must always follow the development of our
armed struggle. New clinics, therefore, have been established
in zones covered by the war, and these are the areas that in
the past had always been neglected by the Portuguese. In fact
there were no public health centres, no medical staff, no
health campaigns at the time when our war of national liberation began in September, 1964.
The clinics established in the liberated zones are of various
kinds, depending on the kind of diseases prevalent in the area,
the equipment and personnel available. They can be a first aid
post where first aid is administered to any emergency case and
where medicines prescribed by other more important centres are
distributed; or they can be regional hospitals, where a great
number of diseases are treated, especially those which are contagious or those caused by parasites, where sutures and small
surgical interventions can be made. One of these hospitals in
Cabo Delgado, treated 3,485 patients in a period of one year -
from 1968 - 1969. In this Province for example, apart from the
Central Hospital, we have 11 district hospitals and 56 first
aid centres with a medical staff of 315 people.
Besides treating people, campaigns for sanitary education and
the use of prophylactic medicines are being organized.
In the southern part of Tanzania, we have a Central Hospital,
Dr. Americo Boavida, at Mtwara. All hospitals and first aid
centres inside Mozambique depend on this hospital for medical
supplies. Serious cases that cannot be treated in any of the
hospitals in the liberated areas are brought to the Central
Hospital at Mtwara. The hospital is equipped with 67 beds, and
almost everything is done there; medical consultations, laboratory analyses, preparation of some medicines, small and big
surgical operations. At present, the X-Ray facilities are provided by the Tanzanian Government Hospital.  Two foreign doc-