Letters from Overseas

November 2008

• Conselho Cristao de Mocambique
  Zambezia, Sector de Comunicacoes
  Ave Julius Nyerere 948, CP 400
  Quelimane MOCAMBIQUE

Come, O children, listen to me; I will teach you the fear of [God].

Psalm 34:11

Everything important, you learn best if you start to learn as a child—at home, in your community, and crucially too at school. Rural Mozambican girls often do not go to school until they are 7 or 8 because of the long distances to the school, or because of parents who do not think that girls need formal education, but should get married at age 11 or 12. As the girls get older, many struggle with being propositioned by the teachers for sex in order to pass. The government and many parent councils are fighting these traditions. The mandate of the PEDRA program is to keep girls in school, and convince the parents and community that this is important.

PEDRA is working. Right now the PEDRA program has 420 girls aged 10 and older who are in the program, which means also still in school. In the next school year starting in January, there will be 82 girls in grades 6 and 7, and 101 bursary girls in grades 8 and above. The parents and community are now very supportive of the girls staying in school and postponing marriage until they finish. They say these girls are their future leaders and they want strong, educated women in their villages. We at the Christian Council feel proud of our PEDRA girls and bursary girls and want to do all we can to help them continue their education.

We’d like to introduce you briefly to three of the bursary girls.

Fenezia Lucas is 14, and from the rural community of Maquiringa. She is in grade 7. She has seven brothers and sisters. It would be difficult for her parents to send her to the district capital of Namarroi to live in the school residence, so she is very thankful for the bursary program. She enjoys science and does well in this subject. She would like to be a teacher.

Jacinta Monteiro is 15 years old, and also from Maquiringa. She has no mother anymore and lives with her father, who is a peasant farmer. She has five older siblings who do not live at home anymore and one younger brother still at home who is 10. She also would like to be a teacher.

Zainete Mussa, from a rural community called Mucisse, has been a bursary girl in Namarroi town for three years. She is 18 and has a mom, but her dad has died recently. She has six other siblings. Zainete has been an active leader in both the PEDRA program and the bursary program. She was made head of the dormitory for the last two years; this is a lot of responsibility and she assumed it well. In January she will be coming to Quelimane city to start grade 11 at the Pre-university High School. Students with grade 12 from this school can go to a college or university.

Zainete enjoys mathematics and chemistry and has good grades in these subjects. She wants to be a nurse. The nursing college provides free dormitory living and tuition, so once she is accepted there her bursary costs will be much reduced.

Life is not easy for anyone in Mozambique, especially rural girls. But these PEDRA bursary girls and others like them are success stories. We’re proud of them all and pray that they will continue in school and do well.

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.