Maryangela's Venture to Mozambique: October 2016

The adolescent girls here in the small village of Magude, Mozambique have great potential. They too have big hopes and bright dreams. But often here in poverty those dreams are diffused by circumstances beyond their control: early and forced child marriage, unwanted pregnancy, gender-based violence and cultural beliefs that girls are not as worthy of an education than boys.

Today is the day to advocate letting these girls reach their potential. It is not just a matter of infrastructure in these poor communities but a positive change in cultural beliefs that close doors and deny opportunities to these young women. They need their parents to be champions for their cause – especially their fathers. Promoted for right now these girls will be energize and lead to a stronger future for Mozambique! Estamos juntos com elas! We are with them!

Peace Corps health volunteers here in Mozambique are encouraged to taken on “secondary projects” apart from our duties in the health sector. These projects are based on the needs of the community and many of us adopt youth programs on various programs already practiced. I selected two projects, one involving teenagers in High School who are learning English and the other with girls from 12-15 years old.

One that I have enjoyed is the REDES group (Girls Developing - Education and Health). Twice a month I meet with 30 teenage girls at the school. The curriculum ranges on important topics, from nutrition to puberty to domestic violence and HIV. Here in a poor rural village these are crucial, the target age is also pertinent since girls as young as 14 are married off and are young mothers by 18.

My counterpart and I have dove tailed income generation into the group and have touched on not only the business aspect of selling crafts, but creativity and strong self esteem.

Our first craft project was notebooks covered by the capolana fabric, now we are working on washable sanitary pads. Thinking of the lack of economic opportunities in this small village and the poverty of their families –and that they are female- the start of them thinking of generating income will hopefully lead these girls to independently secure livelihoods.

My second project just finished two weeks ago and was a big success. I coordinated the province of Maputo’s English Theater Network with high school English classes. Nine teams competed by performing skits in English. The theme this year was “Empowering Women – Empowering the Future”.

Over 100 young adults overwhelmed the audience with creative ideas on how to change the hindering tradition of sexism in this culture. Young marriages, dowries, domestic violence, male dominance, lack of educational opportunities for girls, were topics in the skits with endings that are cutting edge for this generation.