Aletta Shikololo

WINDHOEK – Being a motivational speaker and an entrepreneurial himself, Foreversun Haiduwah has found passion in grooming young girls into skilful entrepreneurs through his project “Daughters of Africa” (DOA).

DOA is aimed at giving learners from six schools in Windhoek, practical skills in entrepreneurship and activating the passion for an entrepreneur.

 Youth Corner sat down with Foreversun Haiduwah, who works for a non-profit organisation “Star for Life” to speak about the vision of DOA.
“Statistics show that the passing rate for learners is below average which pushed me to find ways on how we can assist them in terms of entrepreneurship. We strive to change mindsets of pupils from seeing themselves as only employees to be self-employed,” explained Haiduwah.
  Star For Life has received permission by the ministry of education to work with 38 schools countrywide. The organisation also works closely with the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), Project Hope and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) to implement various mentorship programmes at these schools.
 “With DOA we are only catering for 180 learners in Windhoek, 30 learners at six schools,” he said.
When asked why the project privileges girls only, Haiduwah said girls are the most targets of Gender-Based Violence due to the dependency on men and they are less motivated to do entrepreneurship compared to boys.

Haiduwah urges the government to put much focus on enforcing practical skills development among schools rather than theory.
“Vocational training centres and business schools should be taken seriously as the future of the country depends on them,” he added.

 Born in Angola, Haiduwah moved to Namibia at a tender age of seven and attended primary school at Oniipa Primary School.
Growing up in a less fortunate home with little support from his stepmother.
 Despite encountering challenges from a young age until early adulthood, Haiduwah uses his experiences to inspire the youth and make them believe, there’s always light at the end of the tunnel.

 “I think nowadays youth lack perspective and they are lazy, instead of finding solutions to their daily challenges, such as unemployment, they run to social media to complain about the government not giving them jobs. I used to work as a shop attendant at Pick n’ Pay and Woermann Brock. I was also one of the construction workers during the construction of the new State House,” Haiduwah explained before encouraging the youth to take up every available job opportunity.

 “In Namibia, if a person has failed academically, often society gives up on them. We also have to stop being entitled and work for what we want because no one owes you anything’’ he ended.
 He recently launched his book titled “Daily successful thoughts of a dreamer’’, which is about self-empowerment.