I was born in Maputo and began my educational journey in Mozambique during the post-independence period. Growing up in this context allowed me to witness firsthand the evolution of our education system and the profound transformations it has undergone over the years. My academic path unfolded within a reality marked by structural challenges, continuous reforms, and constant adaptation in the ways we teach and learn.

My personal experience as a student played a decisive role in shaping the path I chose. From an early age, I felt that I did not learn in the same way as many of my peers. At different moments, this difference was interpreted as a limitation or something negative. For me, studying often became a demanding and sometimes frustrating process — not because I lacked curiosity or motivation, but because the learning environment was not always aligned with my cognitive and emotional needs.

Throughout my journey, I had the opportunity to encounter different teachers and educational systems. These experiences proved to be deeply transformative. They helped me understand that being different does not mean being wrong; often it simply reflects a different way of thinking, learning, and processing the world.

This realisation profoundly changed the way I understand learning, mistakes, and human potential.

Motivated by these experiences, I chose to explore more deeply how we can teach and support diverse minds. I became committed to understanding the complexity of learning and to building bridges between two passions that have always guided my work: education and the study of human behaviour through emotional intelligence.

My story is therefore a continuous search for connection — between theory and practice, science and lived experience, reason and emotion. It is within this balance that I develop my professional work, my research, the training programmes I lead, the podcast conversations I host, and the book I am bringing into the world.