By: June Shimuoshili
There is power in seeing someone who looks like you doing something you once believed was impossible.
A girl from a rural village seeing a Namibian woman become an engineer can change how she imagines her own future.
A girl watching another woman build a successful company may begin thinking, I could do that too.
A girl watching an athlete compete internationally may realise that her talent on a dusty school field could become a career.
Representation matters because children cannot always imagine what they have never seen.
This is why companies, government institutions, universities and professional bodies must become more visible to young people.
If we want more girls in engineering, take female engineers into schools.
If we want more women in technology, let girls meet women building software.
If we want women in energy, mining and other emerging industries, show girls the women already working in those sectors.
And don’t wait until Grade 12.
Start in primary school.
Children begin forming ideas about what they can become long before they choose careers.
Namibia is entering an important period of economic transformation, with opportunities emerging across energy, technology, entrepreneurship and other industries. But these opportunities will only benefit Namibians if we deliberately prepare our children to participate in them.
We cannot keep saying that young people are the future while failing to show them what that future looks like.
Girls need mentors.
They need exposure.
They need internships.
They need scholarships.
They need parents who say, “Try it.”
And they need schools that recognise that talent is not always measured by examination marks.
The girl sitting quietly in the back of a classroom may become the woman leading Namibia’s next major industry.
Our job is to make sure she gets the opportunity to find out.
