WINDHOEK – At the age of 27 years, Tonata Enkara, is a proud owner of Emmanuel Pharmacy, situated at the heart of Katutura. The soft spoken young woman recently sat with New Era to share her journey of opening her own pharmacy at the Katutura Central Shops, close to the Katutura Community Hall.
It is evident from her talk that with persistence and hard work everything is possible. “I did not always dream of having a pharmacy. But I have always loved helping people. My family actually helped me connect the dots by linking my love for helping people with this career,” she says with a smile on her face. She says pharmacies are in demand in Namibia and she simply identified a niche which she is now filling.
“Generally, the business is going well. We are still building our client base. I’m still getting to know my patients and trying to bridge the gap between their medical needs and desires,” she says.
Enkara relates that it took her and her colleague, Lazarus Hainana a whole year to open the pharmacy. Although, legally Enkara is the sole owner of the pharmacy, she admits that Hainana played a pivotal role in making her dream a reality.
They relate that it was not all rosy as many people would like to believe. It took prayer, discouragements and searching for an appropriate venue to birth their dream of having the pharmacy running.
In fact, Hainana adds “we tried so many things before we finally settled for opening the pharmacy. At some point we even wanted to start a wholesale pharmacy for the Angolan market but that didn’t work out”, he relates while laughing.
With the financial assistance of the Development Bank of Namibia, which covered amongst others the start up material, medicine, a pharmacy computer system and rent, Emmanuel Pharmacy opened shop to the public about three months ago.
The pharmacy caters for medication ranging from acute, chronic, self medication, slimming products, natural products, including wild berries oil from the northern regions, and baby products, she says. Enkara further adds that counselling services are catered for at the pharmacy.
“Emmanuel means God is with us,” Enkara explains.
Throughout the interview the young registered pharmacist who was born and bred in Oranjemund does not leave God out of her achievement and attributes it to His goodness and mercy over her life.
“I have seen patients who have chronic diseases that are successfully controlled. But, there are also patients who do not respond to their medication either because they are not taking it correctly or they simply have not changed their lifestyle. We are there to counsel them to take their medication correctly. We also advise them to seek God to heal them even though they are on treatment. So, I don’t just promote lifestyle change but the fact that God heals,” she says.
She adds that a negative mindset can negatively affect people’s health. “I think it’s my responsibility to make sure people understand that and to seek the best of help,” she says.
Enkara says even though life is not always a walk in the park as she still has to learn a lot about the business world, she keeps soaring ahead, knowing that at the end of the day everything will be well. “What keeps me going is knowing that everything will be well at the end of the day. I still use my energy to work because I know everything will be fine,” she says.
By Alvine Kapitako