Esperança's story (Mozambique)
Fourteen-year-old Esperança Soul holds her head high as she sings a welcome song in the local language to a group of visitors. Her melodic voice carries above that of her fellow students, gathered in an arid playground surrounded by classrooms in various stages of construction.
Barefoot, Esperança looks pleased with her school, which she has been helping build alongside other students, parents and members of her community. The finished classrooms are simple, small brick rooms with palm reed roofs and no doors, but they will give the students a larger, more comfortable space in which to learn.
Beyond physical construction of classrooms, other developments are also taking place at Namurumo Primary School in the heart of Maganja da Costa, one of the poorest districts in the central province of Zambézia.
UNICEF and the Mozambique Ministry of Education are working together to create "child-friendly schools" which target improvements in a broad range of areas – education, health, water and sanitation, social welfare and communication – with a view to improving student retention and performance in even the poorest communities.
One of the major priorities, said Fazilom Ofumawe, Director of the Namurumo Primary School, is to retain girls and the increasing number of students who have been orphaned – mostly due to HIV/AIDS. At present, the gender disparity at the school is glaring: while in first grade there are 88 girls and 87 boys, by the fifth-grade the class comprises just 28 girls to 42 boys.
In an effort to remedy this situation, the school is relying heavily on its School Council, which plays an important role in improving quality of education and forging strong links with the community. Esperança is a proud member of the Council. "Most of the pupils I visit are girls, and most of those are orphans", she says. "They find it difficult to come to school".
It is easy for Esperança to empathize. As the eldest child in her single-parent household, she has onerous responsibilities at home. Her day is long, but she usually eats only one meal after school. "I'm often hungry during class", she admitted.
Little by little, though, her school is improving, and Esperança has no intention of dropping out. When asked about her future, she said "I want to stay in school. Maybe in the future I'll be a teacher or a farmer, who knows?”
