WINDHOEK – This weekend multitudes of young leaders will come together at the Polytechnic of Namibia (PoN) for the Student Leadership Symposium a brainchild of the Namibia National Students Organisation (Nanso).
According to Nanso Secretary General Sharonice Busch the two-day symposium organised by the student body focusses on building capacity among young Namibian leaders. “We have seen leaders that have just popped up at the last minute, there are no leadership schools for young aspiring leaders. We want to create channels that can develop and nurture these young leaders so that they can realise that leadership does not stop at school as head boy or head girl,” she said, adding that there will be a series of training sessions on Saturday that will inculcate in participants the ideals of pan-Africanism and raising awareness through topics such as “Black Radicalism and the Afrikan rebirth.”
“Young people of Namibia need to discover what their role is on the African continent. Our training sessions and panel discussions will focus on issues like this and will be looking at how young Africans can maintain our African traditional values,” she said. Hundreds of young people all in leadership positions from various schools and educational institutions are expected to attend the event. Busch said although it is their vision to offer these platforms to other youth to discover their leadership qualities and potential, financial capacity remains a challenge. “For the sake of piloting the initiative we are making it possible for those in leadership positions already, but we are aware of those that do not have the opportunity because of their locations but once we have the finances sorted out we will make it open to more young people,” she said. The symposium is the first of its kind organised by Nanso with a similar programme hosted in Swakopmund two months ago. Nanso was founded in 1984 as a non-racial, democratic and independent student organisation. Since its formation the organisation has been organising from the basic understanding that there is a need for students, together with other strata of society, to make education respond to the needs of the country and its people.
15 Aug 2013 – Story by Jemima Beukes