Jordão Macuácua is the Mozambique PRECISE Star of the month in November.

Macuácua, as his colleagues affectionately call him, works in Manhiça and Xinavane where he is responsible for the collection of demographic data in health facilities and in the community. He has a degree in Environmental Management and Community Development at the Pedagogical University. He joined the Manhiça Health Research Center (CISM) in 2014, where he was involved in two projects, CLIP and the ASART-PREG. His role in PRECISE is to link the PRECISE participants to the local surveillance system to help identify women in the community if home visits or additional information is required.

Macuácua told to us that he feels great satisfaction in carrying out his activities in PRECISE:

“There is a sense of continuity with the studies I had been previously involved in, and I enjoy the opportunity to meet with many people including health professionals and community leaders.”  

However, field activities have not been easy lately due to Covid-19. There are a number of preventative procedures that he needs to follow and teach to people in the community to minimize the risk of the infection being spread to people’s homes and families, including his own.

Macuácua also revealed that he is proud of his job, although he faces great challenges in his day-to-day activities. As an example, he mentioned that he travels long distances by motorcycle when visiting communities and health facilities and this can be dangerous.

Finally, Macuácua told us a story that stayed with him from the PRECISE study:

“A story that marked me in the PRECISE study was that of a woman who attended a prenatal care visit and the nurses could not find her in the CISM database.  After doing some research and having a chat with the woman, I found out that she was using a different name instead of the one provided for the demographic surveillance database. This episode taught me that before registering a woman who appears without an identification number I should do a thorough search and talk to the participant, because due to many factors people can omit or change their real information.”