Namibia: Felicia Motinga

I am Felicia Motinga , a 31 year old resident of Berseba. A single mother of a 8 year old daughter, a Namibian citizen I was 29 years old when I first wrote my “I story”, my past was full of grief that I hated myself but the “I story” workshop changed a lot and broke the silence I’ve been hiding I became a new person, the training encouraged me a lot and I finished all three courses.

I never used to participate in community activities however Gender Links and Women Empowerment gave me that courage to want to take more part in such workshops and be a role model in my community, a person to be seen and be respected. My freedom is no more handicapped because I know my rights not relying anymore on others but stand together and fight against gender base violence.

I started my business after the trainings, where I learned to write my business plan and present my first time at mini summit in Mariental where I won first place and got to go to Windhoek to the national summit in 2014 and again got first place which gave me the opportunity to go to South Africa for the regional summit but could not make it. I was proud of myself because I was going to represent my country and my village and be known as a winner.

In 2012 I was appointed as community spokesperson were I had to hand over a petition to the village council on behalf of my community on sixteen days of activism. In 2013 I had to present a case study but lost and in 2015 I was presenting a case study on gender base violence from civil society and got an award for runner up this has motivated me to do a lot more. On a political level, I was elected secretary of gender in 2012 for the DTAYL at national level and the same year I was elected as vice-chairperson in top 5 position at DTA of Namibia youth league.

I am now an independent woman, on my own with big dreams not only has my personal life changed but I have positive influence on others. I am a respected  person in my community and was also elected  to be a member of the  disciplinary committee, I  volunteer in different programs like CCE ( community capacity enhance) related also with AIDS  under the umbrella of AMICCAL and the village council. I also volunteer at the community based rehabilitation for people with disabilities from MOHSS; these programs motivated me to look after my community because now I can identify problems in my community and report to our councilor and work together to find solutions. The village council is however very slow in process of assisting with the needed resources such as service delivery, land and housing, funding people that have skills of running a business however we refuse to lose hope and will keep pushing.

With Gender Links I’ve learned about networking, capacity building not only locally but also regional and national level with the skills I’ve gained from G.L.  I was nominated as a candidate for local authority councilor and hope and trust that I get the post. I am a group leader of Berseba Entrepreneurship Women Group, my future plans are to own a building where I can run my business and reduce the unemployment rate. By 2030 I wish to be known as one of the strongest business women not only in my village or Namibia but internationally.

Thanks to G.L, I am now a happy woman who has a healthy relationship with a boyfriend who understands me and loves my daughter. I’m very proud of myself, a lot of times I’m asked to host talk shows at schools on G.B.V on relating issues. I am  empowered, motivated and a role model.