There are over two million orphans in Mozambique, a third of them due to HIV/AIDS and a further 700,000 children are considered at risk of being abandoned due to their caregivers' old age, HIV in the family and/or deteriorating socio-economic circumstances. As such, thousands of these children, an estimated 5000, live on the streets, however the exact number cannot be quantified. Many of these children, like so many from the general population, have no birth certificates, so cannot even prove their are from Mozambique, and of course, apart from those reached by charitable organisations, have no access to education, health care, nor a viable future.

The country's overall literacy rate is 47% (female literacy 28%, male litercay 60%) and Mozambique is in 183rd place out of 191 countries and territories in 2021 when ranked in terms of life expectancy, literacy, access to knowledge and the living standards of a country and life expectancy is 59.32 years (2021).