WARNING: This is Version 1 of my old archive, so Photos will NOT work and many links will NOT work. But you can find articles by searching on the Titles. There is a lot of information in this archive. Use the SEARCH BAR at the top right. Prior to December 2012; I was a pro-Christian type of Conservative. I was unaware of the mass of Jewish lies in history, especially the lies regarding WW2 and Hitler. So in here you will find pro-Jewish and pro-Israel material. I was definitely WRONG about the Boeremag and Janusz Walus. They were for real.
Original Post Date: 2010-07-30 Time: 17:00:02 Posted By: News Poster
By Louise Fenner
Namibian business student Michael Mulunga, when he is not studying or planning the business he hopes to run after graduation, motivates younger people in Namibia to find purpose and direction in their lives. That volunteer work, he believes, can help turn Namibia’s most undeveloped resource — its youth — into achievers.
Mulunga is one of more than 100 young African leaders from 45 countries invited to the President’s Forum with Young African Leaders August 3-5 in Washington. The participants will explore ways to improve the future of their nations and will take part in a town hall meeting with President Obama. Mulunga looks forward to sharing ideas with other young Africans. “I believe we know our situations in our own countries better than anyone in the rest of the world,” he says, “so it is up to us to make the right choices that will lead to economic development and eliminate social evils.”
A fourth-year business administration student in the Polytechnic of Namibia in Windhoek, Mulunga, 21, is a tireless volunteer with youth groups in his country. He believes that giving the youth of Namibia (and all of Africa) the opportunity to develop and show their leadership skills will enable them, in turn, to inspire others to become responsible citizens. “No instrument in this world can ever measure human potential,” he said.
TRANSFORMATION
The youth of Namibia face many challenges, said Mulunga. “Many young people in my country are not given the opportunity to express their views. Namibia has one of the highest youth unemployment rates, and currently many youths don’t make it to tertiary education.” It is also difficult to start a business because young people have trouble obtaining loans, he said. “Many young people in Namibia have given up on life.”
Mulunga credits the nonprofit organization Young Achievers Empowerment Project with helping him find a direction in his own life. The group turned the quiet teenager he used to be into a motivated leader.
“When I came to this group, I got to know why it is important for a young person to have a vision in life,” he said. “Basically, I was a shy person. I could not talk in public. I could not express myself very well. I did not know that I was a good leader. I came to realize that I had these skills only when I joined the group.”
Michael Mulunga (left front) and a group of Young Achievers take an educational tour of the Windhoek Hosea Kutako International Airport, Namibia.
Michael Mulunga (left front) and group of Young Achievers take an educational tour of the Windhoek Hosea Kutako International Airport.
Started in 2004 by Pandu Hailonga and Lejeune Lockett with about half a dozen people, Young Achievers now totals more than 150 in Katutura, a township of Windhoek, and Ondangwa in northern Namibia. It aims to inspire young people to develop leadership skills and a sense of mission in life, advance their education, and become responsible citizens. One of its goals is to enable every member to go to college.
Young Achievers motivated Mulunga to pass the national secondary school examinations and go to the Polytechnic to study business. The group paid for some extra classes he needed, and he was also able to obtain a loan from the Namibia Student Financial Assistance Fund. Like many others who benefited from joining Young Achievers, Mulunga stays involved and serves as a role model for younger participants. He helps plan meetings, educational events, service projects and other activities, such as a visit to Etosha National Park to view Namibian wildlife, which many of the group never had seen.
After he graduates in 2011, Mulunga plans to start a business raising poultry. (His business plan won the top prize in the 2009 Polytechnic entrepreneurship competition.) He is setting up a poultry farming project in the rural community of Dordabis as part of the Namibia Women’s Health Network’s vocational training program for unemployed young people with HIV/AIDS.
A VISION FOR AFRICA
The President’s Forum with Young African leaders will build on President Obama’s speech in Ghana in 2009, in which he said that Africa’s future is in the hands of Africans and that the United States will remain a committed partner.
Mulunga’s own vision for Namibia and the rest of Africa is to see Namibia as a developed country processing its raw materials at home; to see Africans working together to end social evils such as HIV/AIDS, hunger and poverty; to see an end to corruption and conflict; to see young people in Africa being given the opportunity to get an education, including tertiary education; and to see Namibian youths being given the opportunity to participate in politics and the economic development of the country.
“That’s quite broad,” he admitted. “I want a lot for Africa.”
Original date published: 29 July 2010
Source: http://allafrica.com/stories/201007300891.html?viewall=1