An Inspirational Story from 14 year old Leticia Rodriguez Rocha

This is the inspiring story of 14 year old Leticia Rodriguez Rocha. At the beginning of 2024 Leticia’s cousin was attending Saturday morning English classes at Ammar Transforma, one of Happy Child International’s partner projects in Recife. Her Auntie encouraged Leticia to attend the classes with her cousin who had already been attending the project over a 4 year period. Leticia decided to go for it because she was already studying some English in school and wanted to improve. Her Mother and Father, who works in the building trade, have always encouraged her to study hard in order to  better herself.  Leticia attends a local state school and has been brought up in the low income Joanna Bezerra community, a tough place to survive and thrive.

Every year in her city the local Recife council offers a programme to teachers and students in the state school system called “RECIFE IN THE WORLD”   The programme’s objective is to assist students to receive quality English language education and equip them with skills to access  a contemporary global world. There is a selection process  which offers 1000 places annually for young people in their 8^th / 9^th grade and 50 places for qualified school English teachers to deliver the learning. Leticia’s school teacher nominated her for the  selection process.  Leticia says, “Joining the Ammar Transforma English Classes every Saturday morning in 2024 really helped boost my language skills and gave me the confidence to go for selection”. On completion of the programme there is an opportunity to do a 1 month International Language Exchange Programme in London. From the existing cohort only 100 young people and 10 teachers are selected to accompany the students. What happened next?

Leticia decided to enter the second round  to open up what could be the greatest opportunity of her life.  To travel to a European capital for further language learning.  Leticia told me “I had to sit another test which involved answering 20 English questions, 10 Portuguese questions and 10 Maths questions. It was tough but I did it.  I was 1 of 2 students in my school who passed the selection which enabled me to participate in the exchange programme.  It provided the opportunity to go to London for one whole month in July and August 2025.  All my travel costs, tuition fees, food and accommodation were covered by the programme, and they gave us £300 each to for our daily expenses”.

She said to me that it had been an amazing experience and that she had visited the British Museum, National Gallery and Big Ben. As she is only 14 at times she said she had really missed her friends and family but that her English had improved tremendously. She said, “Every day I had to speak English with the other students from different parts of the world”. To conclude the interview I asked her how this experience had impacted her. She replied “I’ve experienced a very different world here to the one I’ve come from.  Its motivated me to study hard and build a better future for myself. I am so grateful for the opportunity that Ammar Transforma gave me on those Saturday mornings last year and the self-belief and confidence that I built which helped lead me to where I am today”.

The team at Happy Child International congratulate Leticia and her family for her huge achievement. We acknowledge the great work that Ammar Transforma does to sow small seeds of opportunity in the lives of children and young people from low income communities in Recife. We are so proud of everyone who contributes to this project. We recognise that the smallest steps can be the beginning of the most important journeys and having the encouragement to take those steps can be life changing for some.

• Written by Caroline Taylor