Learning happens in Mozambique’s streets, on highways, boulevards, and at numerous traffic light intersections.
With appointments set up in teacher Catarina’s classes, many young people in Maputo who make their money by washing car windows now have the okay to study at stoplights.
Math instructor Catarina Sive, 25, made the decision to contribute to the project in order to assist others and provide training.
“The pupils are joining in, they are accepting. In their interviews they always ask for help to go back to school, because we don’t learn like in school, there’s nothing systematized, and they won’t go from one class to another. It’s simply a stimulus for them to enjoy their studies and to want to go back to school,” said Catarina.
The students are seated in plastic chairs that are arranged in a row in a pavement corner, immune to the activity going on around them. The objective is to ensure that they have access to fundamental Portuguese and arithmetic material before directing them toward a formal educational setting.
“I, for example, did not study… and the teacher also had the courage to come and talk to us. I don’t ask for much, just to learn how to write… because now it’s very difficult and if we find someone who wants to help us, we have to see that they have love (to give),” one student said.
With the assistance of partners, sponsors, and benevolent individuals who are willing to assist the children in writing a different future, this project is embodied with love.
