As soon as she was born, Mércia Viriato Licá faced the impossible. She hadn't even left the maternity hospital, where her mother had just given her life, when her father had already abandoned them. The man disappeared because the baby was born with a congenital disability: without arms.
Mércia had to learn to do everything with her feet, from writing to dressing, eating, using her cell phone or cooking. Her mother also revolted at the impossible. Although the school directors advised her to take the girl to a special center, the woman insisted that her daughter be sent to school with the other students her age. They did it alone.
In an interview on Mozambican television in 2007, his mother explained to a local journalist the difficulties of managing without help in a small village in the province of Inhambane, 450 kilometers north of Maputo, the capital of Mozambique.
In the images, a little Mércia is seen sitting on the sandy floor of a classroom without desks, surrounded by reed walls, writing with her feet. Thirteen years after that scene, on January 13, 2020, that girl made history: at just 24 years old, she became the youngest parliamentarian in the history of Mozambique.
His path has not been easy. After a difficult childhood, Mércia continued to overcome obstacles as she grew up. After finishing basic studies, she moved to the capital and began law at the Maputo Pedagogical University.
The Mozambican channel TV Surdo reported the arrival of a girl like her in the classroom. In the interview, Mércia downplays her disability. “I'm a smiling girl, I'm not different, I'm not special!” she insists.
The young student stresses that the difference is in the eyes of others. “I have always not left the house without people looking at me, both positively and negatively. Some asked me, how can you write? how can you eat? That kind of things. (...) First we have to change the way we think. We have to know that when we see a person with a deficiency, it is not good to look at them with pity, but to try to give them strength. For example, I know how to do almost everything by myself, but I would like if someone looks at me, her message is "you're doing well", "you're going to make it".
At the University, that girl without arms soon showed herself as a tenacious, committed and determined student. From her Facebook account, she directly questioned the country's president, Filipe Nyussi, to ask him to work to ensure access to education for people with disabilities.
He was ugly by an obscene statistic. According to a United Nations report, 17% of disabled people in Mozambique have been denied access to school at some time because of their condition. To Mércia's surprise, President Nyussi not only replied to her message but also visited her at her home and encouraged her to work for youth rights herself.
He picked up the gauntlet: he made the leap into politics and ran for Parliament for the Frelimo party, Front for the Liberation of Mozambique, in power since the country's independence in 1975.
In her first speech as the youngest deputy in the country's history, as a representative of the electoral district of Tete province, she pointed out the importance of schools. “I hope to contribute to the development of schooling and education in the country. Encourage young people so that they never stop studying because education is the path to life (…) I believe that when they see that I am capable, they will also be able to get up”.
His passage through politics is not being indifferent. For Mozambican journalist Alexandre Nhampossa, after completing half of her five-year term as parliamentarian, Mércia has become "a reference and example of improvement" for the Mozambican population.
Fond of playing football or skateboarding, Mércia remains faithful to a motto that has always accompanied her. "Nothing and no one is going to decide where I can go."
For now, keep walking steadily. As far as she decides.
