Pinehas Nakaziko
Windhoek – The 27-year-old Johanna ‘Miss Jo’ Loit is an ambitious, go-getter and very spiritual woman whose interest lies more in the corporate world.
Born and bred in Windhoek, Miss Jo’s biggest challenge was overcoming the trauma of having been sexually molested by a pastor at the age of 12, and casting away the Orphan and Vulnerable Centre tag, having had to attend the centre after school.
“The whole community was so judgemental that it didn’t give me a chance to express my side of the story. This left me depressed as I didn’t know where to turn for help, and at the same time I was going through high school challenges,” says Miss Jo, adding that she managed to overcome all this through prayer.
She also experienced financial difficulties and was unable to get the best education she wanted. Miss Jo used to sell Nik Naks crisps and lollies on the school premises to get an income.
“The income I got from this I used for transport to school. Imagine from Goreangab Dam to Academia, Monday to Friday, the cheapest transport was the municipality busses, and this meant to wake up early at four o’clock in the morning, foot with my parents who worked in Eros and Prosperita, to the bus stop to catch the bus on time.”
Growing up was not easy because she was the eldest of her siblings. “The pressure was on me to prove to myself, the community and the relatives that, despite my experience of being sexually molested, I could still be strong and never [lose] my vision of being successful one day,” says she, adding she experienced a lot of judgements and gossiping. Today, Miss Jo is an accounting and entrepreneurship teacher at Rehoboth High School. She is also a part-time businesswoman running a driving school known as Ëpupa Driving School in Windhoek. “Teaching and business have always been a calling to me because my mom owned a kindergarten. I was inspired by this and as I was one of the bright learners in school, I always had teaching sessions with my childhood friends when growing up.”
Miss Jo started her pre-primary in 1996 at Happy Kindergarten. Between 1999-2005 she attended Olof Palme Primary School. From 2006 to 2010 she attended Academia Secondary School. All the school years she was active in school clubs.
She furthered her education at the University of Namibia (Unam) studying education, specialising in accounting, entrepreneurship and business studies for Grades 8 to 12.
“The hunger for success drove me into starting a business, as the salary is not enough. My interest in the corporate world already started where I came from. My mom is a partial businesswoman, apart from her full-time job. I do experience challenges in the business world but the quote Entrepreneurship is the way we take control of our lives in a tough economy by Lori Greiner kept me motivated to never give up.” “Being a businesswoman, I am planning to [help alleviate] poverty in Namibia and create employment for the youth by extending our services in other parts of the country. Our corporate social responsibility goals are that we are planning to convince the ministry of education to introduce learner licence lessons as non-promotional subjects in secondary education.”
Miss Jo advises the youth to set realistic goals for their future and work towards them to make their dreams come true. “Youths should also take their education very seriously,” she signs off.