Letters from Overseas

March 2008

She perceives that her merchandise is profitable.... Give her a share in the fruit of her hands….

Proverbs 31: 18, 31

The lengthy praise of a practical, talented, financially savvy woman that concludes the book of Proverbs gives a picture of what it looks like the girls of PEDRA could be on the way to becoming. Last week two girls from each of the five rural PEDRA centres in the district of Namarroi travelled by truck—singing and laughing in the back all the way—on a weekend exchange trip to the 50 PEDRA bursary girls in Molumbo. It’s an hour’s drive away. Almost none of the girls had never been so far from home.

The Molumbo girls taught the girls from Namarroi how to make knotted thread bracelets, which they themselves had learned to make by lessons and practice over the preceding two weeks. A donor of PEDRA, Church World Service in the USA, has asked for as many as the girls can produce, to help raise awareness of American donors. The girls learn a fine-motor skill, develop high work standards (you can’t market a shoddy product), beautify the world for themselves and someone far away, gain confidence in their ability to contribute—and earn 10 meticais (about 40 cents) per bracelet. After their weekend exchange, the Namarroi girls returned to teach their peers. So far they’ve made 1,000 bracelets in their spare time away from schoolwork, PEDRA programs, and helping out at home.

They’ve also gotten into baking. When we had asked the rural PEDRA girls and their women educators what they’d like as an income-generating project, they came up with starting a canteen at their community schools to sell buns and biscuits. So each centre built an oven of local brick, and went into business. The women learned to bake and then taught the girls—mix the ingredients, knead, roll it into balls once risen, cut the crack in the middle. Each dough-ball must be of uniform size (a bun too big cuts into profit margins; a bun too small won’t sell), and the girls take turns to tend the oven, feed and stir the fire, control the temperature during baking, mount and remove the corrugated metal sheet that serves as the oven door, and take out the tray when they’re done (10 minutes; palm leaves for oven-mitts; 250 buns per session).

Each centre’s girls also got a seminar in small-business management. Gathered around a flip-chart, they learned about analysis of cost for materials, time, and labour; sustainability; pricing to make a profit but staying within the customers’ means; quality control (as with the bracelets); transport; and marketing. Each centre got a start-up investment of a big steel cooking tray, a plastic bin for transporting the final product, and start-up yeast and flour. Now they’re on their own, sending out their bread on the waters—or rather on the schoolyards—a business venture that Ecclesiastes says will bring returns.

When we brought the girls back to Namarroi on Sunday afternoon, their parents were waiting at the roadside, eager to hear what the girls had learned from their weekend of shared experience and learning. We and their parents pray they’ll become adults like the wise and practical woman of Proverbs, who farms, trades, sews, spins, and sells, and her family prospers. That they’ll stay in school and make constructive life alternatives to premature pregnancy and HIV/AIDS.

In mission and service,
Karen and Bill Butt

Karen and Bill Butt are United Church of Canada Overseas Personnel serving with Conselho Cristao de Mocambique in Mozambique. The work of this ecumenical partner and the work of overseas personnel are made possible through your gifts to the Mission and Service Fund of The United Church of Canada.