Alumni Update – Mozambique
Euclinton Foliche, Mozambique, 2015-16 Global UGRAD
From time to time, people face different situations that can be considered trials or tests of our capabilities of enduring life’s challenges. Most of us often take many of those challenges as obstacles that are not possible to overcome; however, with persistence we learn that struggles are our most valuable source of motivation to thrive in life, whether economically or socially. As a Global UGRAD alum, I have been trying to link myself into several activities regarding the lessons I acquired during the duration of the Global UGRAD exchange program in the United States. From this I have taken the best of these lessons to share with my peers. Some of these lessons I learned through volunteering, working, and writing.
In the United States, I learned that giving some of myself to the community is something many will consider a “noble action” for a cause; I began to think and I realized that I could do something similar in my country to enhance the spirit of serving. I wanted to focus mainly on changing the perception of young people towards volunteering. While doing one of my random fun readings, I came to face one sentence from Martin Luther King Jr. that has been circling my mind since then, which states: “Life’s most persistent and urgent question is, ‘What are you doing for others?” From that moment forward, I started to get active and more involved with a young continental network managed by the U.S. government which is called Young African Leaders Initiative (YALI). The main goal is to empower young people with skills that are going to create a multiplier effect by transmitting and sharing with others the importance of working together to achieve a great number of results in our society. Furthermore, since March of 2016 (the time I became more active in the network group), I have been more focused on issues that afflict developing countries like Mozambique by planning and promoting events that bring awareness about the bias women and girls face in our society in order to empower them in small learning events, mainly about their rights and how they could be part of the development of the country’s progress. In most of these events, I focus on what they can do through education and entrepreneurship. Most of my activities are namely focused on empowering girls in high schools and technical learning centers.
The other focal point that I have been attached to is related to the internship work that I am participating. After my return from the United States, I was pleased to be accepted into a small business company where entrepreneurial activities are developed. Moreover, the activities are mainly related to agro-business; since my major is related to agriculture, I decided to apply to further develop the skills I have learned while in college as well as in the Global UGRAD. During my internship, many challenges have come into surface, but the work done is very interesting not only for gaining practice experience, but also because most of the activities give me a chance to grow individually and professionally. I do miss being a full-time student, and even though the learning site has changed from a classroom to an office, I still enjoy my time because it is shaping me in several distinguishable ways.
Finally, the last thing I have been developing is related to writing. Writing is one of the ways I have learn to adapt to free my imagination and share what had been kept inside my head. I once read somewhere from a blogger that, “To be a great writer, mistakes and [bad] drafts have to be made.” I think that to be a writer one must have sense of will and like to do it as well. Learning about this new part of myself has given me more confidence to use writing as a way to liberate what had been stuck in my chest. As a beginner, I have been organizing my drafts and looking for a title to name them because each talks about a specific issue that I have experienced or linked to my program experience. I am excited and looking forward to publishing. Writing is not a sea of roses, but I am enjoying it.