Namibia: When girls get equal opportunities, the sky is the limit

Sheronice Busch from Namibia won the 2012 leadership category of the regional Local Government and Gender Justice Summit hosted by Gender Links. Despite her young age, she has demonstrated consistency and innovation in championing gender equality.

Busch’s gender activism started as a student at Cosmos Secondary School. She participated in gender and media literacy training offered by Gender Links and the Namibia Polytechnic in 2006.

The course exposed participants to gender concepts with special emphasis on gender-based violence as part of the course content. Through the training Busch realised the importance of gender and GBV.

After the course Busch came up with a project to design and produce a 20-page magazine that gave voice to children and youth. The magazine aimed at challenging stereotypes to ensure that children, youth and women are not depicted as helpless, vulnerable or consuming alcohol as there are normally portrayed.

“Since we participated in media monitoring and realised how the media portrayed women and girls in the media, we decided to try and challenge gender stereotypes,” said Busch.

Namibia has signed and ratified the SADC Protocol on Gender and Development. Through the magazine Busch and her team aimed to advance the SADC Protocol Articles 30 on gender and media. The provisions promote equal presentation, as well as fair portrayal of women.

Because of her exposure, Busch became a Junior Speaker for the Children’s Parliament where she led the Second Session of the Children’s Parliament of the Republic of Namibia. During her tenure as speaker, she worked on a strategy to ensure that senior parliamentarians became ‘Child champions.’

Busch demonstrated her leadership acumen by participating in the children’s reference group during the revision of Namibia’s Draft Child Care and Protection Bill. Internationally, Busch participated at the 65th General Assembly’s Youth Forum of UNESCO in France in 2009.

In December 2011, Busch was elected Namibia National Students Organisation (NANSO) Secretary General. She has focused her energies on pushing the agenda for the one-learner, one-textbook in Namibia.

Busch is currently a student at the Polytechnic of Namibia. Accepting the award at the Summit she noted that youth in Namibia are pushing the agenda to transform society and working to ensure their voices are heard.