This was the paramount task in the project. Other activities described above were in away auxiliary to this activity. The reasons why women are left out of renewable energy and development projects include lack of culture and history. Lack of women in energy planning and in the engineering field in developing countries such as Mozambique find their root in the cultural barriers of those traditional societies. Unless purposefully engaged, rural women and girls will continue to be lost or alienated customers of energy and other products of science and engineering necessary for the development of their society. Girls’ education and women’s literacy are central to poverty alleviation, sustainable social and economic development, and nation building.

To ensure that women are part of future energy planning and engineering workforce in Mozambique, a program for generating the interest of young women and girls in SMET must be instituted in order to break the cultural barriers which have held them back from participating.

The REEMWaG project pursued this goal by holding an institute for girls in which hands on training were used to demonstrate the power of science in solving real life problems familiar to them. Secondary school girls were selected for the institute each year. Participants were encouraged and supported to pursue SMET education at the college level. In addition to involving the students in the outreach project (example, In the installation of a PV lighting system at the community center), they worked with PV kits to explore the concepts of energy transformation and electrical circuits, with resultant interest in the sciences and engineering.

EMU faculty and local secondary school teachers spearhead the energy institute.

Another means of reaching as many rural girls as possible was through the traveling renewable energy demonstration laboratory. This lab visited schools through out the country and engaged girls and some boys, and their teachers in renewable energy short courses and experiments.