Two months ago we started weekly literacy classes on our base, the majority of our students are the older widows that attend to the base’s church. On the first day of class we listened to each of their stories in hopes of knowing more about the reasons why they didn’t even know how to right their own name.
One woman in particular named Helena grew up in a different province so she speaks a different dialect than the others, but understands the local dialect and also speaks portuguese, for an uneducated person she is very smart. Before that day she had never been to school, had not ever had held a pencil to write she didn't have the slightest idea of how to even start writing her name. She told yus about how when she was a little child, she wanted so badly to go to school but her father would not permit her to go, she needed to work on the farm with her family, if she didn't get her allotted chores done in the fields she was not allowed to eat.
Most of the Mozambicans eat from what they have planted, that’s the way they provide food for their families. So for survivals sake she worked and never went to school.
Helena is always the first to get the base to wait for the class to start. She doesn’t see well from afar, so she stands up most of the class time to approach the board and see the letters. She’s not interested in just repeating the letters she wants to see them written, she taker her time to look at each letter and say their names loud, to memorize them.
She was so happy when she finally learned how to write all the letters of the alphabet and is even happier now that she knows how to write her entire name!
She has her own signature and she’s starting to put some letters together and read them on her own!
What a privilege it is to us to see some of these amazing ladies getting their dignity back.