Faces of FIUTS: Meet Ilka
Faces of FIUTS is a social media campaign that collects personal stories from individuals who are part of our work. In honor of International Women’s Day, meet Ilka!
Where are you from? I was born in Nampula, a city in the north of my beautiful country Mozambique. I lived most my life in Maputo, Mozambique's capital, and because of my family history if I where to say where I am from I would just say Mozambique, all of it!
What's your FIUTS story? I became involved with FIUTS when I joined the SUSI for civic engagement program. FIUTS was very important in my development as a leader and in finding my strengths and how to use them. The whole experience with FIUTS was where I learned that my story, my interests and who I am are unique and important. They assisted me on developing my own project focused on women empowerment, which today is what identifies me as person and as a professional, it was a game changing point in my life.
How will you change the world? I believe that people who truly love themselves don't oppress others and also have the strength to fight oppression, so I will change the world by providing tools to help people love themselves more! My work is especially with women and gender based violence, women are an important backbone of my community so assisting them in regaining their power and developing confidence and self-love is for me an important step for the development of my country and also to make my country a reference to the world.
(P.S. You can also watch Ilka’s inspiring TED Talk here.)
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Honorina Ilka Saíde is a psychologist and an alumna of the 2017 cohort of the Study of the U.S. Institute on Civic Engagement. As her SUSI project, she founded a program called Women Empower, coordinating self-defense workshops for women, and has worked as a mentor and coordinator for Girl MOVE Academy.
Faces of FIUTS is published regularly on the FIUTS blog, Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. Read past posts collected here!
Interested in being featured as a Face of FIUTS? Contact Ellen Frierson at ellen@fiuts.org or go ahead and fill out the form.
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SUSI programs promote a better understanding of the people, institutions, and culture of the United States among international students, teachers, and scholars. Study of the U.S. Institutes (SUSIs) are short-term academic programs for groups of undergraduate leaders, educators, and scholars from around the world. Hosted by academic institutions throughout the United States, these 5- to 6-week Institutes include an intensive academic residency and an integrated educational study tour. Extracurricular cultural and community activities help to broaden the participants’ understanding of U.S. society. Learn more about SUSI programs here.