21/02/10

Yesterday and today we had planning meetings in Maputo for REDES. REDES, Raparigas Em Desenvolvimento, Educaçao, e Saúde (girls in development, education, and health), is a project that was started by PCVs in Mozambique in 2005. The REDES mission is to empower and develop young women in the areas of life skills, education, and health. I think it is a project that has an incredible ability to make a difference, because girls/women are really second-class citizens here sometimes, and more gender equality could do wonders to develop Mozambique. Just things as simple as teaching girls that they have the skills and the power to negotiate their own lives and their relationships with men will make a huge difference in their own lives and for the country as a whole. The REDES project has two components, weekly meetings with your REDES group which I will be starting soon, and a yearly conference in April that we were planning for this weekend.
The advantage of going to Maputo is having access to all the things that exist there and nowhere else in the country, so I enjoyed some great Thai food and ice cream, and was able to buy a non-stick pan and packaging tape.