Building a Basketball Court In Mozambique!

Some of my REDES girls and I reunited after my evacuation!

Hello friends and family!  First of all, I would like to let everyone know that I am safe, and after a 2 week evacuation from my village due to political unrest in the central part of the country, I have returned to my site and am diving right back into work. This unexpected time away from site has put me a little behind on a few of my projects, the most important being a basketball court and HIV/AIDS education program in my village. As many of you know, I am currently serving as a Peace Corps volunteer in Mozambique. I live in a rural town in the Province of Tete, and I am working with my village to build a community basketball court. I facilitate a girls leadership group at my school called REDES (Raparigas Em Desenvolvimento, Educação, e Saúde, TRANSLATION: Girls in Development, Education, and Health). It was  this group of 6^th-10^th grade girls who came up with the project as a way of helping their community, and I am doing everything I can to help them achieve their goals. The project aims to construct a basketball court and HIV/AIDS awareness mural as a means of addressing several community needs. This court and incorporated mural will address not only the need for positive youth extracurricular activities, but it will provide an accessible route to community HIV/AIDS education. Upon the court’s completion, the space will be utilized not only for sporting events and physical education classes for grades 1-10, but also for monthly health workshops and HIV testing campaigns, and countless hours of fun and learning. The community, and especially the youth, are very excited about the project and have already begun to accumulate materials at the building site. The community has pledged to not only provide a substantial amount of the construction materials (including bricks, quarry rocks, sand, and water), but they have pledged their time in the form of manual labor. I have been journeying into the African bush with my students to gather rocks and sand for the construction and everyone is working very hard! Thanks to everyone for your kind words and support, and please continue to wish us luck on this project as there is still a lot to be done!