Namibia: Roswita Harase

I am 39 years old women .I joint Gender Links group in 2013 where I had training on Entrepreneurship the first time I was told about the training I thought to myself what is that? Why me? Do I really need this training? But in the end I decided to join. At first I thought it will be difficult but as days went  by I became relaxed and understood everything and that got me participating in all their courses and not miss any of them.

I improved my communication skills mostly in English, how to draw a business plan, how to use my income, expenses and profit. I also learned behave in my community, how to co-operate with other people and other businesses. The facilitators of the program were very patient and friendly which made it easy for us to ask questions when we did not understand and we got answers because they explained in simple terms. There were a few problems with transport with the venue being far from where we can get  buses we would sometimes be late and we would stand in the sun waiting for transport, we sometimes had to borrow money from family members to pay transport and buy food for something to eat.

Before the training I stayed at home with my mother helping her with farm work, at times there will be nothing to do because we had not received any rain and whatever we produced from the farm we would sell it by auction because they paid more money, my mother would reward me for my hard work and with that money I would go to the nearest town and buy clothes, shoes, jewelry, hair products and come back to sell all those thing in the village. Together with my cousin we own a beauty care and hair salon.

The Gender links training helped me gain more knowledge on how to deal with challenges that comes with running a business, how to work with customers, how and where to look for help relating to my business, how to apply for a loan and managed money. I reached out to the council for a loan and got rejected.

I also learned to be happy with myself and ended the relationship I was in because it was abusive, this training changed my life because I now live in peace with my myself, my friends and my family. I am now participating in other workshops and training such as the youth against crime, Namibian institute for democracy and aids program, helping deal with problems in my own community.

Gender links help me changed my life, I am now known as a role model in my community, my children, friends and family respect me and come ask advice from me and I am proud  to be of help to my community. I see myself driving my own car in the near future, a big house, owning all kinds of businesses and with god by me I know all this will be possible.