On the southeastern rim of Africa, northeast of South Africa, east of Zimbabwe and bordered by the Indian Ocean lies the ‘shattered land’ of Mozambique. Mozambique has suffered the consequences of war, famine and drought. Of the approximate 14.6 million natives, it is estimated that 6.5 million require international food aid, with 3.2 million dependent on free emergency food. Robert Gersony, in his 1988 report to the Department of State, noted that approximately 2 million refugees have fled their homes. The Mozambique Red Cross estimates that the majority of these refugees are children. Fifty percent of the population is reported to be under 15 years of age. (Uqueio, personal communication)

There is increasing awareness and sensitivity to the plight of ‘children in a warring world’. In the last few decades there has been a significant change in the nature and intensity of war. Armed conflicts around the world have been increasingly characterized by low intensity and episodic conflict, the employment of guerrilla armies, and the victimization of the civilian population. Dyregrov et al. (1987) have suggested that 80–90% of all casualties in the current spectrum of armed conflicts are civilians.

In his monograph, Children of War, Rosenblatt (1983) states that, 'there are places in the world like Northern Ireland, Israel, Lebanon, Cambodia, and Vietnam that have been at war for the past twenty years or more… the children living in these places have known nothing but war in their experiences.