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Youth Promoting Social Change in Gender Equality

Last Saturday one of my secondary projects, as Province Coordinator English Theater Network, was completed with delight of one hundred high school students performing a skit in English.  Funded by Peace Corps, volunteers in each of the ten Providences in Mozambique, organize a contest to promote learning the English language while understanding social issues that affect progress in this country.

I had the awesome opportunity to visit other districts and meet these motivated groups. Each student has their own aspirations to learn English, from studying abroad or working here in Mozambique, and these students who organize exudes motivation to learn.

The powerful theme of the show was “Empowering Girls –Empowering the Future”, and each group displayed social awareness of the disparity between genders here in Mozambique. Examples of scripts were common situations here: daughter’s  husbands selected be the father for dowries, girls marry at in their early teens; funds for school are invested in the boys and girls drop out after primary school; girl’s future is limited to housewife and mother; and domestic violence. These common scenarios were presented along with a solution – showing us that this generation could be the ice-breakers for reform in gender equality.

Here is a glimpse of the contest, imagine the skilled performance of these teenagers!

Summer returns

It’s the first weekend in September and I welcomed a friend from the city to come visit rural life at my site in southern Mozambique. Unfortunately, the first hot days of the summer season came as well.  We spent the morning touring the hospital, schools, and the main street and then we took a ride out to the “mata” – the bush.

The pictures below narrate the settings just 10 miles / 22 kilometers from the main village. The smiles overcome the dry, hot, dusty roads, hoping that the 2 year drought will be broken and the gardens will produce essential food.

Never too warm to play soccer

The bush just 10 miles from the village

Genuine smiles

Going to move the cows

Look on the road buddy!

Homestead

Working and playing together

Water supply

So cute

Quaint

Sunny dusty necessary walk

Perfect posture

Selling baked goods

Daily laundry

Hitch hikers

Getting water

I caught this boy in an embarrassing moment - look close!