REDES, hoye!

Bom dia!  Once again, I find it being about a month since I’ve written.  Whoops.  Or maybe that’ll just be the rhythm I fall into.

Anyway, today is a lovely, very summery Sunday, which means I will shortly be having my weekly REDES meeting. 

I’ve mentioned REDES a handful of times before, but I still haven’t really explain what it is.  I’m going to try to do so in this post, since REDES is one of my main activities here and since I just got back from the 2013 Handover meeting between the old and new leadership – so REDES is very much on my brain these days!

So, what is REDES? 

REDES is a national network of girls’ groups – it stands for Raparigas em Desenvolvimento em Educação e Saúde or, in English, Girls in Development in Education and Health.  These groups meet on a regular basis to discuss health, communication, goal setting, and anything else they might find interesting.  Groups have discussion, watch movies, dance, perform community service activities, participate in theater, and work at income generation. The girls who participate in these groups are often some of the most motivated girls in a community who are dedicated to their activities and very invested in learning and achieving more than the typical kids-and-husband-early-and-cooking-forever. My REDES girls are some of my favorite people are site.

There is also the national organization side of REDES – a group of volunteers who form the national leadership.  We are responsible for coordinating activities between groups and facilitators (our training of trainers, the REDES workshops between regional groups, trocas or exchanges of experiences between two or three groups), arranging the budget for the year and applying for our funding grants, and constructing a curriculum for all the groups to follow at site. 

My role in this national leadership is Curriculum Coordinator – which means, for the next year, I am responsible for writing/choosing/organizing the curriculums for the groups at site, the different conferences we have throughout the year, and also developing a new income generation curriculum.  Needless to say, I’ll have my hands full!

I also have my own group at site – the REDES group of Escola Secundaria Kankhomba.  We’ve spent a good amount of time working with the current curriculum – going through sessions such as communicating with adults and making good decisions – we’ve also spent meetings watching movies, doing crafts, and just hanging out. 

Currently we are participating in another Peace Corps project – English Theater – where each participating group writes a short theater piece in English to then present at a regional conference.  The Niassa/Northern Zambezia competition is at the end of September (so soon!), so we’re tying up loose ends and practicing, practicing, practicing!  I would share what our piece is about, but my girls want to keep it a secret – needless to say it’s pretty impressive, filled with drama and even song!  Pictures (and maybe video!) will come after the event.

After we wrap up with this project, I’m hoping we’ll start on our income generation project – either to fund an end-of-the year something or other or save up and start off with a bang next year.  We’re also looking into starting a series of lectures at some of the primary schools in Lichinga – and some of my girls even want to start their own groups there! 

REDES, hoye! Sustentabilidade, hoye! Raparigas, hoye!