“Be a team player, be creative and be honest with other people and yourself.”

Amélia Russo de Sá, Deputy Representative, UNICEF Angola.

After 6 years as Deputy Representative in Angola, Amélia is leaving the UNICEF office in Luanda to start her new post as Senior Advisor for Communication for Development (C4D) in Child Protection in the East and South Africa Regional Office in Nairobi, Kenya.  

Tell us a bit about your background. 

I was born in the north of Mozambique, in a province close to Malawi. My parents were Portuguese functionaries and I lived in several of the provinces of the country during my childhood and adolescence because of my parents’ work. In 1973 I started Arts university in Maputo and completed 3 years. When independence from Portugal came, I decided to remain in Mozambique and participate in the construction of the new nation. I started working in the Ministry of Education, as a teacher. Later, I integrated a division that was responsible for the preparation of the first school-books after the independence. At the age of 22, I was the responsible for the national training of Portuguese teachers for the first two years of secondary school. It had been enriching, very interesting and very challenging for a young person. In 1985, I got a scholarship to go to France and finished there a Master degree in socio-linguistics. When I came back to Mozambique, I was appointed the dean of the Faculty of Arts of the High Institute for Teachers‘ training. In 1991, I joined UNICEF.