Windhoek – Four-year-old Namibian child model and kid actress Rose Bimpe says while 2018 has been a challenging year as she struggled to book good gigs or appear in international movies as she planned, she said she is grateful that she used the year consistently contacting film producers and children production houses in South Africa, London, Ghana, Nigeria and the United States (US).
As a result of monologues that she did and consistent approaches, Rose will be penetrating into the international market, and she will be traveling to South Africa this Friday, and then head over to Ghana for some possible interviews with international media houses.
“I am a believer that even if the opportunities are not found around, wherever they are, there will always be a means to get there and that’s what we are trying to do as managements,” says Tuhafeni Nakashole, who is Rose’s mother and manager.
“We are trying to get to those opportunities. Last year, through people we managed to connect with a lot of people and that is helpful. As a mother, I am very sensitive over Rose that I do not let her out of sight, and yes, I will definitely escort her to South Africa. We have interviews to do with some popular magazines that are also distributed in Namibia,” explains Rose’s manager.
She adds that they also have some international Production houses willing to listen to them, and give them a platform to audition because she is not based abroad.
“After that, we will travel to Ghana where we are going to have a very tight schedules all our days. We managed to have two directors that side who are willing to audition her,” says Nakashole, who believed that Rose is talented and is very much in love with what she does.
“I see Rose not as only a Namibian child but as a global child. A child citizen of the world. That’s why these lack of opportunities locally don’t bother me. As much as I want her to model for local and South African kid brands, and act in movies regionally and continentally, I want Rose to be part of a production house for kids,” explains Nakashole.
She adds that her aim is to have Rose work with SA and Ghana movie production houses in 2019. “We could have had left already in December but I had to raise funds for my trip to guarantee comfort and ability to move around. I’m just glad that my closest friend since my arrival in Windhoek was West African. That allowed me a chance to meet more of them and it won’t be difficult for me to go around when I’m in Ghana.”
Rose started crèche at five months, and education is now big part of her and she will only be seen with books this year. “While I plan to spend few months in Accra, Ghana this year depending on how everything goes, I will make sure American movie directors and kid’s production companies notice her.”
Apart from that, they are also busy creating Rose Bimpe’s Kid Production House where they will bring in talented kids, and write their own stories.
Rose last year featured in a video posted on the FinMango website. FinMango is an American-founded global non-profit organisation that teaches children in developing countries about financial literacy. The campaign video was posted under Fincubator, a programme focusing on education, entrepreneurship and microfinance, which targets the entrepreneurial spirits for kids and women. On the video, Rose speaks about the benefits of the programme and lends her support to the campaign.
She was also shooting some few videos in the northern part of the country as well as in Angola titled Mbwitis be Like.
Rose was born in Oshakati in the North of Namibia in 2014, and moved to the capital city with her mother when she was just a few months old. Apart from the love for acting and drama, Rose has a passion for fashion, and regularly poses for pictures, whenever an opportunity presents itself. At two years, she started imitating television models and told her mother about her passion for modelling. At the tender age of three, Rose felt the acting passion stirring within her.
She watches many fashion shows on television during her spare time, and is a very active child, imitating actors and showing her own sarcasm on how they present themselves and how she could do better. Living in a country of just over two million people, with very little to no opportunities and a not well developed film and modelling industry, her mother struggled to enroll her for drama and acting classes at the Helen O’ Grady Drama Academy in Windhoek. Rose is very dramatic that even her drama teacher was impressed just on her second visit to the school.
While Namibia offers little to no opportunities for Rose’s talent and passion, her management remains committed to work on her development to make sure that her domestic limitations will not dampen Rose’s dream.