30/08/10

Last week after my dad flew out from Maputo I stayed for a REDES (Raparigas Em Desenvolvimento, Educação e Saúde—Girls In Development, Education and Health) meeting. REDES is a PCV-run project that operates on two levels. There is country-wide leadership that organizes the annual regional conferences (booking venues, finding, training and paying facilitators, and writing the curriculum), provincial conferences, inter-group experience exchanges; applies for and manages the budget for all of these things; and represents REDES to the people who support us. Then there are the individual groups that are facilitated by a PCV and a Mozambican counterpart and meet with girls ages 13-25 on a weekly or more basis to do projects and discuss issues. Every group has its own focus, but the general categories are culture arts, and sports, volunteerism and community action, career preparation, and income generation, with an emphasis always on gender issues and HIV prevention. In a culture where girls tend to be given fewer opportunities, REDES groups and conferences create an environment where girls can have fun, increase their self-confidence, and learn skills which are all things that improve their quality of life and reduce their susceptibility to HIV. (For example, the self-confidence gained from REDES may enable a girl to negotiate condom use with her boyfriend. Or a girl who can make a living using the skills she learned in her REDES group, for example making bags, is less likely to engage in transactional sex—sex in return for any type of goods).
As Moz 13, the group before mine (I am Moz 14) prepares to leave, my group is making the transition to take over all projects. This REDES meeting was the handover meeting for the top country-wide positions, so I am now the National Financial Director of REDES. This is an incredibly exciting time to be working with REDES because the group, which was only started in 2005 by PCVs, has and continues to grow exponentially throughout the country. This is wonderful because new groups are popping up everywhere, including many groups that have no PCV, but are run by a Mozambican who was in a group while she was in school and has started her own group at the school where she is now a teacher. This of course is the ultimate goal—sustainability and Mozambican investment. But while this is a great achievement it is also a challenge because we have never before had to fund and communicate with groups that have no PCV representation. While in Maputo Anna, who is now the National Director, and I went with Moz 13’s leaders to meet with US Embassy’s Public Affairs Office (PAO) which is who funds us. Although we are a PCV-lead group and the Peace Corps recognizes us as a legitimate secondary project, we receive no funding from Peace Corps and all leadership is done in addition to the Volunteer’s primary project (teaching, in my case). The people at the PAO are wonderful and incredibly supportive of our project, even suggesting (and offering to pay) a Mozambican employee, which we hope to start this year. This will be the first time a position like this has existed but will be great for sustainability (as our leadership turns over each year), presentation with the Ministry of Education, and creating a network with the Mozambican-led groups. All of these developments are exciting and exhilarating, but also possibly overwhelming and we have to make sure we don’t grow too quickly.