Guidione Simbine, Graça’s father passes away 1 month before her birth. Guidione’s wish was for all his children to receive an education.

Daughter of rural Mozambique, Graça is born the last of 9 children. Her roots shaped her deep connection to community and justice.

Graça emerges as a bright child and receives scholarships to study in Lourenço Marques (Maputo) and eventually the University of Lisbon in Portugal.

Graça joins the clandestine movement against Portuguese colonial rule.

Graça runs away from Lisbon to join Liberation Front of Mozambique (FRELIMO) and trains at Nachingwea camp in Tanzania. She was later deployed to various military camps across Mozambique as a teacher for FRELIMO.

Negotiations between Moçambique and Portugal commence and Graça Machel joins the transitional government. She is appointed Secretary of Education from September 1974 – June 1975 (9 months of transitional government)

• Mozambique gains independence.
• Graça marries President of Mozambique, Samora Machel

As the first Minister of Education after independence, she leads efforts to reconstruct the national education system. During her tenure, the number of students enrolled in primary and secondary schools increases from about 40% of all school-aged children to over 90% for males and 75% for females.

She is the only woman member of the new cabinet.

Her husband, President Samora Machel, is assassinated in a plane crash organised by the South African Apartheid Government. Despite the tragedy, she continues her service in government and broader humanitarian work across Mozambique.

Recognised for her leadership in advancing food security and child welfare.

Graça and other African educationalists including Aïcha Bah Diallo and Agathe Uwilingiyimana co-found the Forum for African Women Educationalists (FAWE) to promote girls’ and women’s education in sub-Saharan Africa.

Graça founds the first civil society organisation in Mozambique to strengthen civil society and improve livelihoods across country.

Graça is appointed by Boutros Boutros Ghali, Secretary General of the United Nations as an Expert, to Chair the Study on the Impact of Armed Conflict on Children. Her collaborators include Jennifer Klot, Stephen Lewis, Kimberly Gamb-Payne and Theo Sowa, amongst others.

The United Nations honours her with the Nansen Medal for her outstanding service to refugee children and displaced communities.

Graça is appointed the board chair of the African Centre for the Constructive Resolution of Disputes (ACCORD). She works to advance good governance, conflict resolution and peace keeping in Africa.

Her groundbreaking UN study, “Impact of Armed Conflict on Children”, brings global attention to the plight of children in war zones and is a global framework for action, to this day.

She receives Spain’s highest international honour for her extraordinary contributions to human rights and global cooperation.

Graça Machel marries South African icon and President Nelson Mandela, uniting two of Africa’s most influential liberation legacies.

Graça becomes the first woman and first black person to be appointed Chancellor of UCT, championing inclusion, academic excellence, and student equity in South Africa’s top university. She serves in this role for 20 years.

Following severe floods in Mozambique, Graça and Blaise Judja-Sato mobilise support for flood relief.

Challenged stakeholders from the public and private sectors alike to work together to develop the *Pentavalent vaccine. She also motivates them to increase accessibility to essential vaccines to millions of people globally.

* The pentavalent vaccine is a 5-in-1WHO-prequalified shot protecting infants against Diphtheria, Pertussis (whooping cough), Tetanus, Hepatitis B, and Haemophilus influenzae type b (Hib).

Graça is awarded the World’s Children’s Prize (together with Nelson Mandela). Accepted by their daughters, Zindzi & Josina.

Together with Nelson Mandela, Graca Machel co-founds The Elders, alongside Archbishop Desmond Tutu, former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, former US President Jimmy Carter, and former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, former President of Ireland Mary Robinson and former Foreign Minister of Algeria, Ambassador Lakhdar Brahimi.

Through a global vote by children as part of the World’s Children’s Prize, she is celebrated for her tireless advocacy for child rights alongside Nelson Mandela.

She establishes the Graça Machel Trust, a pan-African organisation focused on women’s leadership, children’s rights and women’s economic advancement.

Graça is recognised for her work as an international advocate for women’s and children’s rights together with other world leaders like Bill Clinton and Barack Obama.

She establishes Girls Not Brides with Princess Mabel Van Oranje of the Netherlands through the Elders. In 2013 it became an independent organisation.

Recognised for her international influence and academic advocacy, she is appointed head of one of the world’s leading institutions for African, Asian, and Middle Eastern studies where she continues to influence the shape of global academic discourse.

Simultaneously, she becomes Board Chair of Partnership for Maternal, Newborn, Child Health (PMNCH) – the world’s largest alliance for women’s, children’s and adolescents’ health and well-being – with nearly 1,500 partner organizations working together.

Graça is appointed Chancellor of the African Leadership University, an executive center for innovation and excellence on the continent.

She is awarded the World Health Organisation’s highest honour, for her global contributions to health and wellbeing of women and children.

Machel is one of the influential public figures committed to raising awareness, inspiring greater ambition, and pushing for faster action on the SDGs, which were adopted by world leaders on 25 September 2015.

African Leadership Magazine honours her for her environmental advocacy and for championing climate justice with a gender and equity lens.

Trófeu Raça Negra (Afrobras) recognizes for her contribution to social justice, human rights and uplifting Black people globally.

• TIME100 Impact Award – This award specifically acknowledges her impact as a social justice activist.
• The National Democratic Institute (NDI) honours Graça with The Madeleine K. Albright Democracy Award, the NDI’s highest honour, presented to an individual or organization that has demonstrated a commitment to democracy and human rights.
• Kemet Boutros-Ghali Foundation for Peace and Knowledge recognizes Graça Machel’s lifetime of work advancing peace, justice, and human rights across Africa.
  Recognised on the world stage for her democracy-building efforts and inspirational leadership, Machel is awarded by TIME and the National Democratic Institute.

Graça Machel receives a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Diane von Furstenberg Foundation. The award is announced and handed over by Oprah Winfrey.

Graça is a distinguished honouree at the 10th Anniversary Aurora Prize Ceremony to Celebrate Courage and Generosity and awakening humanity.

Graça chairs one of the committees at the World Meeting on Human Fraternity and addresses the Grace for the World Concert at Vatican City.