My childhood was difficult, because my father passed away when I was just 6. Leaving my mother with three sisters and me. Two years later, my older sister was diagnosed with epilepsy and a paralyzed left hand. My sister and I also supported my mother by taking the little sisters to school, and then we went to school also while she was at work.  She didn’t have enough. On some days, I went to sell some stuff she bought from work to help buy school supplies for everybody.  I lived in a community without many opportunities and with problems with safety, violence and sanitation. Sometimes I broke down and cried when realizing that we lived in poverty, with not enough food, money to buy school supplies. 

As I grew up, I learned to be visionary, humble, reliable, loyal, generous, friendly and determined.

As community leader, I advocated for Angolan citizens who are living abroad, which wasn’t constituted until 2021 for the right to vote for those who are living outside of Angola. It was a challenge, but it was an accomplishment. In 1997, I had another accomplishment, as the face of over 200 scholarship finalists from different academic backgrounds who were under the Angolan government scholarship agency, breaking the contract by not subsidizing them while they were in school abroad. And promised them to be paid at the end of the academic term at home (in Angola). Unfortunately, when everybody returned to everything when silent for months, no jobs, no money, nobody seemed to care or even give any information. That’s when I was the face and voice of the finalists' commission to solve the problem. It was a great accomplishment even with so many obstacles. The government agency paid over $400,000,00 for all 200 finalists in three months. That was a victory. Besides, I'm connected with communities around the US, especially in California.