girls only.

When I was about nine, I remember having conversations with Abbie George that were strictly “Girls Only.” I think sometimes we even had “club meetings” and would not let Devin play with us those days. While he probably thought we were leaving him out, we were excited to have the time to ourselves, not that we did anything particularly scandalous or noteworthy. I also am pretty sure we were not the only ones to separate ourselves from the boys on our block. In fact, I bet if you go to Claire's, in the mall, today you can find all kinds of “girls only” pink and turquoise paraphernalia.

In Mozambique, few girls can boast that they ever had time just to themselves. Once you are old enough to carry a baby, you have one strapped to your back. When you can be trusted not to burn the rice, you spend your afternoons preparing dinner for the family. Girls in Mozambique are usually served second, sit on the floor, and bring the water for the men to wash their hands. Girls are fifty percent less likely to finish secondary school than boys, mostly because their families think they should be home taking care of chores around the house. Even at a young age, many Mozambican girls never get the opportunity to enroll in primary school, the priority is to their brothers. Needless to say, door placards explaining that no one can come in until their girl talk with their best friend is over do not exist.

I think that is why I think REDES (Rapariga em Desevolvimento, Educacao, e Saude) is so important. REDES is an opportunity for school aged girls to have something to call their own. At our meetings, my girls are very silly. Sometimes they drive me completely crazy, but then I just think back to how much energy I had as a fifteen year old girl. My REDES girls love to dance and sing and if you ask them what they want to do when they want to grow up you will get an elaborate picture of their future, complete with a description of their future home, the number of kids they want, and their profession which could be anything from an architect to a doctor to a movie star.

REDES is also an opportunity for girls in Mozambique to do something they normally would probably not get the chance to do. Recently, I helped with a REDES program in Inharime with 120 girls. The program had a bunch of different stations set up around Inharime's soccer field. We had reserved the field with the owner that day and were assured that no one else would be using it that day. Throughout the day, girls had a chance to learn about nutrition and make peanut butter, learn to make little fabric flowers to try to sell, paint a mural about women in sports, play soccer, dance the cha-cha slide, and talk about life in secondary school (half of the girls were secondary school girls and the other half were from primary school).

The program was a huge success. Despite the hot sun, the girls maintained their energy throughout their games of football, their dancing, and their impressive painting of a mural. They were all starting to make new friends and really enjoying the opportunity. But then, around 2 PM, forty boys showed up expecting to play soccer. We explained to the coach that we had the field for the day. After some arguing, he agreed to come back around 4 when our program ended. However, as the negotiations went on, the girls took matters into their own hands.

The forty boys soon found themselves surrounded by 120 energetic, empowered young ladies. The girls started chanting, “NOS QUEREMOS JOGAR! ELE NAO AGUENTA!” (which roughly translates to: We want to play! He won't win!” The boys were stunned. Then a girl stole their soccer ball and started playing with it. That started the girls singing even louder and really confused the boys. Eventually the girls started moving the boys toward the entrance to the stadium. Before long they had successfully run them off the field. The girls threw back the ball and told them not to come back before 4.

They got the picture and left us alone, though they came back a few minutes before 4.

They got that that day the field was “girls only.”

But more important, they girls got it. The girls were proud of their day on the field and no team of boys was going to take that away from them.

And better than a little door placard, now the field's walls are covered with a mural of images of girls playing soccer and girls dancing.