Letters from Overseas

December 2008

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

To you, O God of my ancestors, I give thanks and praise, for you have given me wisdom and power....

Daniel 2:23

Daniel is praying to give thanks, before he goes before the Persian king to teach him the meaning of his dream. He’s grateful because he has the wisdom to interpret, and the power that comes with credibility in the court, where he has grown up and where he and his young friends have so impressed the king with their understanding and can have such an influence. On December 5, 12 of the total of 90 bursary girls of the PEDRA program at the Christian Council graduated from their three-year course at the Nicoadala Teacher Training Institute. In conversations after the ceremonies, they all individually gave thanks for the program. As one of them, Olivia, said, “Of all the girls of my age in my village, only three of us continued in school. Thanks to my bursary, I’m one of them.”

It hasn’t been easy. Only about one in five rural Mozambican women is literate, and girls who reach this level have countered the prevailing rural culture of marrying early and devoting their short lives to bearing and rearing children. Throughout their course they’ve only been home twice a year, in January and July. None of their parents could afford to pay school fees, and none could afford bus fare to attend the graduation. But Conselho Cristao de Mocambique (CCM) was there, and everything possible was done to make it a special event. Over their crisp school uniforms they wore green banners with “graduado” in italicized white letters. Each carrying an unlit candle, all 207 soon-to-be-graduates lined the long lane leading to the centre, waiting in 40 degree heat for the provincial governor’s representative, the district administrator, and other dignitaries to arrive. Then everyone moved in procession into the assembly hall, a round, concrete, high-ceilinged building with windows at roof level for ventilation against the heat.

They sang the national anthem and the school song, which praises the virtues of education. Then each graduate came individually to receive her or his diploma, and a red or yellow rose, which each held aloft—one in each hand—to the crowd’s applause. When each one had been presented, everyone in unison lit their candles, recited the teachers’ creed, and sang the teachers’ song.

A local women’s dance group performed, and a band of five men playing wooden marimbas and homemade shakers. A group of six students, including Locadia, one of our bursary girls, sang a song they had written about education, with one of them accompanying on guitar.

All the PEDRA graduates have jobs in Zambezia province schools for the new school year, which begins at the start of February. The college administrator—a woman—announced that more than half the graduates this year were women, which means female teachers, female voices, female role models, in many small rural primary schools across Zambezia. Come February, if not for the CCM bursary program, these 12 young women with their youthful wisdom and power would not be among them, transmitting their PEDRA values of girls’ empowerment to the next generation.

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.