Sandra Jafar Tarmamade

The dream as a harbinger of reality

Sometimes reality is bigger than the dream. So much bigger that the dream becomes just a harbinger of possible reality. Then there is destiny, which is made up of days, circumstances and choices that define the place where we end up belonging. Destiny itself built the career of Sandra Jafar Tarmamade (b. 1966). As a teenager, perhaps impressed by planes ripping through the clouds, she dreamed of becoming a flight attendant. “It was a vague dream,” she tells us. It wouldn’t come true, but it would serve as a harbinger of what would become her life.

Born in Inhambane, she was given the position of clerk in the Provincial Directorate of Transport and Communications. At the time, the Government chose the fate of finalist students. But two and a half years later, she asked for a vacation and never came back.

She arrived in Maputo to continue her studies, but also to work. She (re)started as a saleswoman in a clothing store, from where she left to become a secretary at the Soares da Costa construction company.

An announcement that Mozambican Airlines needed staff in the Revenue and Traffic Control department opened new horizons. But, due to the experience in her curriculum, they suggested the opening in the secretariat of the Directorate of Operations. “As a secretary, I dealt directly with the technical and cabin crew, flight attendants and assistants.” She was closer to the dream, but she realized that it would be difficult to achieve. “I was afraid of flying.”

She worked for 17 years with the Director of Operations, reaching the top of her career in her role. But she thought she needed new challenges. There was an internal recruitment for an opening in the Commercial Directorate, and she got the job. She remains there to this day, performing the functions of Revenue Integrity Auditor. Voluntarily, she is part of the Care Core Team for the Emergency Response Plan and is the Occupational Health and Safety Focal Point for Commercial Management.

When we asked her to look back at the most difficult moments of her more than thirty years at LAM, the answer she gives us – “I don’t remember bad times” – says a lot about the type of professional she is. She is not pedantic, she is clearly aware that “not everything was a bed of roses,” but it is the good moments that she prefers to place on the shoulders of memory. Portugal, England, France, Namibia, South Africa are places that, at the same time, added to her personal training, helping to overcome the fear of flying. She joined LAM with her 9th grade qualifications, but her thirst for learning made her finish high school and then university. “LAM represents stability,” she says.

Issue 72 Mar/Apr | Download.