Graça Machel

Graça Machel, DBE ( born October 17, 1945 in the Manjacaze district, Mozambique, Graça as Simbine ) is an African politician and human rights activist.

It is both widow of former President of Mozambique, Samora Machel and the former South African President Nelson Mandela. She is the only woman in the world, which was in two countries First Lady. It is globally committed to the rights of women and children.

With six years Graça Simbine first attended a Protestant missionary school, then received a scholarship to study in Portugal, first at the University of Coimbra. Later she went to Lisbon and made in 1972 at the University of Lisbon, a bachelor's degree in philology in German language. In Lisbon she met political comrades from other Portuguese-speaking countries, which is also how they aspired to independence. She returned as a teacher in 1973 returned to Mozambique and struggled secretly with the Frelimo during the armed struggle for national liberation against the Portuguese colonial government. There she met her first husband Samora Machel know and quickly rose in the hierarchy of Frelimo.

After the independence of Mozambique Graça Machel was 14 years Member of Parliament, Education and Culture Minister even after the death of Samora Machel. In Mozambique, she fought for compulsory education. UN Secretary-General Boutros Boutros- Ghali appointed Graca Machel in 1994 to its special rapporteur. For nearly three years she traveled the world to report on children on the effects of armed conflict. She was in Bosnia and Cambodia, Colombia and Rwanda, Lebanon and Sierra Leone.

On July 18, 1998, she married Nelson Mandela, the former president of South Africa.