Cultural Empowerment through Education in Mozambique
During June 2017, Harshita Nadimpalli spent three weeks in Mozambique at St. Ignatius Loyola Secondary School (Escola Secundária Inácio de Loyola, ESIL) as part of an ongoing initiative of the Berkley Center for Religion, Peace, and World Affairs and the Center for Social Justice Research, Teaching, and Service at Georgetown University. There, she conducted interviews with students, administrators, professors, and connected community members. Mozambique’s citizens in the area in which the school is located endured years of protracted conflict and damage during the colonial and civil wars, and the quality of education overall suffered greatly as a result. Nadimpalli sought to understand how ESIL promotes local cultural empowerment as a form of social justice and gives students the tools they need to succeed in both their rural reality and the international context.
