The Ambassador’s Special SSH (SSH) Program is a program offered by the U.S. Ambassador to Mozambique.  SSH gives U.S. Embassy support directly to communities, groups, neighborhoods, areas, communities and towns that are doing something to help themselves.

Perhaps. SSH funds are given for specific projects or activities.  The money must be used to purchase something without which the project would not get started or cannot be completed.  If you have a plan, labor, and funds for a specific project, but need some supplementary help, the U.S. Embassy may be able to assist you.  However, we can only help the project once!  No repeat performances.

Unfortunately, no.  SSH activities should help improve basic economic or social conditions at the community level and should avoid financing those that have only short-lived value.  Therefore, SSH funds cannot be used to buy consumables like flour for bread, paper for a school or fertilizer for a farm.

Sure! Perhaps you are building a classroom and you already have timber, bricks, cement and enough meticais to buy books and paper.  However, you don’t have the money for desks, chairs and roofing sheets.  SSH may be able to pay for the desks or the roofing sheets.  Maybe your community is constructing a well.  People in the community have already dug the well, but they need cement to line it.  SSH funds may be able to help purchase the cement.

Yes. We already mentioned not being able to provide items that are consumed, including food, paper or fertilizer.  We also cannot be involved in a project that is already being financed by the Government of Mozambique, as we have other programs that provide U.S. assistance to the Government of Mozambique.  However, we are willing to support locally organized projects that may be sponsored in part by government organizations.

Yes, that is the idea.  The SSH fund will try to get you some items you can’t otherwise get, but the community must do the work.  SSH money cannot be used for administrative and/or operational costs of a project, including salaries or travel costs.

Perhaps.  However, keep in mind that the community will have to decide what it will do for itself.  Remember, this is a “self-help” program.  The U.S. Embassy will help you help yourself, but the Embassy will not do the project for you.  If a community wants the bridge enough to contribute some of what is needed to build it, then the U.S. Embassy will be happy to talk with you about helping with the things you can’t get like building materials and supplies.

Talk to the community and find out what people can contribute to the project.  Some may have money and others may have a bag or two of cement, while others may have timber or bricks.  Still others may be willing to donate their time to manage the project or manpower to build it.  How you organize the effort is up to you.

Now it is time for you to fill out the U.S. Embassy application for SSH Funds.  Answer each question carefully and as fully as you can. Tell us why you need the project, what the community will contribute to it, who will organize it, and what you want the U.S. Embassy to provide.  When you have completed the application, send it to the U.S. Embassy.

The U.S. Embassy will consider your application, along with others received throughout Mozambique.  Since SSH Fund is limited, not all projects can be financed.  The SSH Selection Committee will consider all projects against the SSH fund criteria.  Those projects that best meet the selection criteria will be chosen for funding.

The project leader will be contacted by the U.S. Embassy’s SSH Coordinator to arrange final details and the signing of the SSH agreement.  The agreement states exactly what the U.S. Embassy will give your project and how it must be used.  In the meantime, the SSH project leader should identify sources for the support rods and obtain price quotes for their purchase.

Of course!  However, please be sure to use the rods only for the bridge.  If there are any materials left over, you must advise the U.S. Embassy SSH Coordinator.  If you use items purchased with U.S. Embassy funds for any purpose other than the that stated in the agreement signed with the U.S. Embassy, you risk having to repay the funds and losing eligibility for future SSH funding.  From time to time, a representative of the U.S. Embassy may stop by to see how the project is going.  By all means, get started as soon as possible!

Yes. Everyone from the area will be there, and we would like someone from the U.S. Embassy to come too.  Fine!  We would be pleased to attend.

Even though the project is complete, please remember one thing: Don’t throw away the records of your project!  The U.S. Embassy must be able to check them for up to three years following the completion of the project.  Now, please let us know when the ceremony will be, so we can put it on the calendar!
Thank you again for your interest in the Ambassador’s Special SSH Fund.

Good luck with your project!

For more information and an application form for the The Ambassador’s Special Self-Help Fund, please contact:

Elizabeth Filipe, Economic/Commercial Specialist
U.S. Embassy, Maputo
Tel: 258 (21) 492-797 Ext. 4459
Email: filipeEC@state.gov