Selma Neshiko
Born and Bred in the capital, Donald Simon Gotlieb, also known as Don Speedy, is a 32- year- old dude who faced a lot of hardships but made sure his siblings had food on the plate.
He started his primary schooling at the Mandume Junior Primary and then went on to Namutoni Primary School eventually completing his high school at the Negumbo in the North. After losing his dad at 12 years old, Don Speedy was forced to move to the North with his eight siblings because his mother couldn’t cater for all of them. “ Things that me and my siblings had to go through growing up without a father are unexplainable. It was one of the reasons I had to go school in the North. As a teen I was a quite boy, shy but sharp in books,” he says.
When Don Speedy and his siblings moved to the North, he stayed with his mother but later went to leave with his uncle because it wasn’t easy for her to take care of all the kids. “Seeing my mom going through a lot just to meet our needs was hard so I decided to look for a job so I had to help her out,” reflects Don Speedy. After completing high school, he took a leap year because his mother couldn’t afford to sent him to the university.
After the leap year, Don Speedy’s mother decided to enrol him to study nursing because that’s the only field she could afford even though he had other dreams. “It wasn’t something I wanted to do but it would get me a breakthrough to what I wanted to be, a (dentist) and I had to do it for my siblings as well. I was becoming the bread winner of the family but most of all I just aimed to secure a better future for my younger siblings,” he says.
Years later, Don Speedy got his diploma in Nursing and then his first job at the Katutura Health Centre as a nurse for three years. He later went to work for a private primary health care clinic called Pharmaccess as a HIV, CD4 count rapid tester. While there Don Speedy applied for a scholarship to study in South Africa or Russia and got accepted in Russia. He is currently in his third year studying Stomatology/Dentistry in Russia but hopes to specialise in maxilo facial surgery after he completes his five years in Stomatology/Dentistry.
What keeps him going is his mom and siblings. “I just have to keep going so I can make up for what we been through” he says adding that nothing holds him back and encourages the youth out there to follow their hearts. “ I don’t let anything get in my way. I strive for what I want. If other people did it I can too. To the youth you shouldn’t let people tell you what you can’t do; you have the power to change everything about your life. So go for what your heart desires,” he inspires.