Prince Rahim Aga Khan visits the Aga Khan Academy Maputo

On Friday, 18 March 2022, Prince Rahim Aga Khan visited the Aga Khan Academy Maputo before the Academy’s inauguration the next day. During his visit, Prince Rahim toured the Academy’s facilities and interacted with students and staff members.

Prince Rahim began his tour of the Academy’s facilities by visiting the Senior School (SS) library, where he spoke with students and viewed the SS students’ visual arts displays. After this, Prince Rahim visited the SS courtyard, science block and science garden. He then toured the Academy’s multi-purpose hall and interacted with more students and staff members around the swimming pool area.

Prince Rahim also met the team of volunteers at the AKA Maputo led by Aga Khan Education Services Vice Chairperson Nilofer Lakhani, who plays an important role in supporting the functions of the Academy. The volunteers accompanied Prince Rahim to the student residences, where he interacted with the residential students from Syria and Iran. Prince Rahim ended his tour by visiting the Junior School library and the Commons.

When speaking with the students, Prince Rahim learnt about the different activities and projects that the students are currently engaged in. He especially spoke with the students about their projects related to environmental stewardship and sustainability, such as the Grade 5's and their gardening project in which the students planted seedlings for various types of vegetables on the Academy's grounds. The Grade 5s have also passed down their knowledge to the Early Years Programme students to teach them about where food is sourced and the importance of caring for the environment.

Stewardship is one of the key attributes of the Aga Khan Academies Learner Profile and, in contribution to the larger Aga Khan Development Network mission, the students at the Academy put this attribute to action through various environmental projects to care for their surroundings both within and outside of the Academy. 

"I had the opportunity to speak with Prince Rahim Aga Khan about the different types of plants that we have around the Academy," said Diploma Programme 1 student Ruben Persson. "I spoke about the projects we have, how we look after our plants, how we label the indigenous trees around the campus, the benefits of each plant and what they can be used for, and, finally, our future plans to continue to protect these plants." 

Overall, the students greatly appreciated the visit by Prince Rahim and enjoyed the opportunity to interact with an important figure for the Academies.