By Gino Lew Wai Hing, General Manager of MOURA, Mauritius

My name is Gino Lew Wai Hing, General Manager of MOURA, the leading funeral service provider in Mauritius, a small island in the Indian Ocean. My journey into the funeral profession was driven by a desire to bring innovation, structure, dignity, and professionalism to a sector that touches families during their most vulnerable moments. Prior to my current role, I worked in the hospitality industry, as well as diverse service operations and other funeral companies. I have always been passionate about building bridges between tradition and modern service standards creating positive emotions and experience for clients. I now oversee a multidisciplinary team that works closely with families, associations, religious leaders, embassies, and global partners to deliver high-quality end-of-life services across the island and beyond.

Mauritius is multicultural with a population of approximately 1.3 million people. The funeral industry here is deeply influenced by religious and cultural diversity. Hindu (Vedic, Puranic, Telegu and Tamil), Muslim, Christian, Chinese, and secular ceremonies are all practiced, with strong community involvement in rituals and customs.

The country has around a dozen licensed funeral operators, a mix of traditional and modern providers. There are over 100 cemeteries and crematoriums, and the mortality rate hovers around 9.3 per 1,000 inhabitants annually. Cremation accounts for roughly 35–40% of all dispositions, though this varies by community. Most repatriations involve either the Mauritian diaspora, students, tourists or foreign workers from countries such as India, England, France, South Africa, Bangladesh, Madagascar, Nepal and China among others.

We cater to more than 300 funeral ceremonies per month and have seen our market share grow steadily over the past few years Our mission is Giving Comfort Taking Care, ensuring that every family is cared for and comforted during the loss of a loved one.

Five major challenges currently face the funeral sector in Mauritius:

• Lack of regulation and standardization, leading to inconsistencies in quality of service and pricing across the industry.
• Lack of centralized government office to announce death and do all paperwork. Civil status offices are regionalized and for cremation, paperwork needs to be done at 3 different places and can take half a day.
• There is a lack of new cemetery plots for burial, especially in urban areas, requiring families to shift toward cremation.
• Limited training and professional development opportunities for funeral staff, particularly in grief care, embalming, and international standards.
• Limited access to affordable equipment and accessories.

At MOURA, we have addressed these challenges by investing in staff training (including grief-stage awareness), implementing digital tools for planning and client support, and creating partnerships to

raise professional standards. We believe the most important aspect of a funeral ceremony is the human factor. Customer service is and will always be key to a funeral arrangement. This is why we have a bi-yearly “Prayers by Moura” event initiative offering multi-faith mourning events with psychological guidance.

MOURA has over 25 vehicles, operates multiple funeral halls, an operations center, a mortuary and preparation center, and a dedicated repatriation unit. We offer a wide range of services, including repatriation, burials, cremations, religious ceremonies, grief support, ash memorials, floral arrangements, and the sale and installation of granite tombstones and plaques. Our sister companies handle floral arrangements, funeral insurance, coffin manufacturing, and granite tombstones. We also serve families abroad through diaspora-focused packages and live streaming of ceremonies.

By joining FIAT-IFTA as the National Member for Mauritius, MOURA aims to align more deeply with international ethics, improve our training programs, improve our services, expand our repatriation network, contribute actively to global funeral Industry and serve the Mauritian community better. We are honored to be part of this worldwide community, and we look forward to learning, sharing, and growing together.

Moura
www.mourafuneral.com
Contact us: gino@mourafuneral.com  

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