Tuesday, April 8 - Afternoon

This afternoon we visited GESOM, the Social Education Group in Manica that works closely with UNICEF. Our entire team was very impressed with GESOM's work. This NGO is working on education and awareness of issues across the community, and HIV/AIDS is an obvious focus. The facility includes a radio station, internet cafe, and a rec hall for children's programmes. The most amazing part is that most of these programmes are run by children. We met a group that was working on a programme, the 10 children were ages 11 to 17. They all work at the radio station in all capacities from interviewing, broadcasting, and even the technical side of constructing the equipment. These young people are bringing to light and starting discussions/debate on such issues as HIV/AIDS, cholera prevention, child rights, girl's education, birth registration, promotion of Child-Friendly School initiatives and the Youth-Friendly Health Services. Mozambique has typically had a culture that did not speak openly about these topics, but this practice will no longer work. Knowledge is power. These young people are not only spreading valuable information, but are honing professional skills that can allow them to get better paying jobs in the capital (journalism, business, health work, and more) and continue to spread the knowledge around the country and Mozambique's story around the world. GESOM is also one of the partners that is creating the mobile multimedia units that are bringing these messages to the most isolated parts of the country. After leaving GESOM, we headed to another part of Chimoio where a mobile unit was just beginning their presentation. Apparently the town had been told we were coming and they had an extra large turnout of a few hundred people, and a lot of really young children were allowed to attend as there was a school holiday the next day. (The units will drive through town during the day with a bull horn to drive up attendance) As we walked toward the crowd a huge cheer went up, you really would have thought that we were rock stars. I've never seen so many happy, excited young faces. They had set up folding chairs for us along the inner circle of the crowd and we were immediately surrounded by children. They wanted to get as close as possible, and many were touching and hanging all over us. At one point I had enough children leaning on me that I was almost falling off my chair! I desperately wanted to pull one of the young ones up into my lap, but figured that might have started a bit of chaos. As excited as they were, as soon as the video started the entire crowd fell silent. Most of them had never seen any sort of electronic media and they were riveted. We saw two stories that they told as parables. It was all in Portuguese, but we could understand the messages clearly. The first showed a wife asking her husband to pick up a cocunut for dinner. At the market, the man shakes the cocunut and it sounds like there's milk inside, he brings the cocunut home. When they crack it open there is no milk, and the moral of the story is that just like the cocunut, the face of AIDS may not be visible from the outside. You may look and feel fine, but you should still be tested and have your partner tested as well. The second story had two men breaking down rocks. One man thought he was very clever and picked the smallest rock thinking it would be the easiest to crack and it ended up being the most difficult. The same moral applied. The best part of this presentation was watching the kids. They were laughing, they were engaged, they really got it. It was just so encouraging to see the education being received. It gives you hope. There is a small window of time from about 10-14 years of age, where UNICEF and the other partners are hoping to reach the kids before they become sexually active. Statistics show that girls begin sexual relationships on average by 16.1 years and boys are only slightly later at 17.8 years. The program is focused on HIV/AIDS knowledge, family planning, and child's rights, particulary the right to education where there is a large gender gap right now. Only 48% of girls attend primary school compared to 56% of boys. All in all, the mobile unit was a very refreshing positive experience. They told us of a unit a few weeks back, that had half the group lined up to receive HIV/AIDS counseling and testing in the tents after the presentation. That is a huge improvement for a country that is still battling the stigma of HIV/AIDS.