The Portuguese non-governmental organization (NGO) Helpo is launching a children's book in Mozambique on Wednesday about the lives of children in the armed conflict in Cabo Delgado.

"This situation has already caused damage to more than a million lives and more than half of them are children," so if they are the "main players in this theater of misfortune," Helpo believes that the story "should be told to children," explains Carlos Almeida, the NGO's coordinator in Mozambique, quoted by Lusa.

"Obviously, it's told in a filtered way, but we always have access to the story as it is," based on the accounts of young people and children from villages that were attacked and forced to flee - testimonies collected by the book's author, Maria João Venâncio, and which gave rise to the Helpo exhibition "Escola do Caminho Longo".

"These children's main dream is to continue studying," he says.

The accounts come from some of the 3,000 students who have already benefited from Helpo's scholarship program for access to secondary education in the province, where the NGO has also helped to relieve the pressure on host neighborhoods - for example, with new classrooms.

The children's book "A aldeia que os monstros engoliram" (The village that the monsters swallowed) has already been launched in Lisbon, in June 2022, and is now being presented at Camões - Portuguese Cultural Center, in Maputo, on Wednesday at 6pm, with the presence of Mozambican illustrator Luis Cardoso.

The book tells the story of Suzi, a 10-year-old girl who was forced to flee her home and walk hundreds of kilometers to escape the "monsters" that attacked her village, in the hope of reaching safety.

"If children, even the youngest ones, have contact with these scenarios, which are not good, but are reality, it may be that when they grow up they will have a different sensitivity and will be able to perceive the problems in a different way," added Carlos Almeida, alluding to the humanitarian emergency.

The book will be on sale at the event with an autograph session by the illustrator and will later be available at the Futurando center, where Helpo's headquarters are located, in Jardim dos Professores, Maputo.