My name is N#aise and my surname is Ghauz. I am also known as Irene but that is actually a nickname. I am 25 years old. I was born and raised in a small village called Tsumkwe back in Namibia. I am a San young lady and to be specific I am a Ju/’hoan. In my family we were born six – 5 girls and 1 boy.. I am the oldest or should I say the first-born, and being a first born was never easy for me, I always try my out most by leading by example to my siblings. Growing up in poverty as a Ju/’hoan child have never been easy. I when to school in Tsumkwe from grade one up to three then there was an Organisation offering scholarships to a group of San kids to go school in towns such as Otjiwarongo and Kalkveld and my little sister who followed me was amongst those kids. Then she only went the first year but, then the second year she became sick and my parents decided to exchange us, so then she when back to Tsumkwe and I when Otjiwarongo to a primary school called Spes Bona…
We were a group of let me say twelve San kids two older ones at high school and the rest of us at primary. It was never easy for me as a San child to go so far away from my family. To make it worse, back in those days in Namibia especially with the schools in towns it was like an abnormal thing for a San child to go school in town with other different tribes, because whenever you speak your home language the kids would be laugh at you and tease you and talk all the sorts of crap. Actually they would criticise you to an extent that when you go home for holidays you would not want to go back to school and that is how all my fellow San kids dropped out of school… Whenever I would tell my parents especially my mom that I don’t want to go back to school, she would motivate me by telling me all the good things of completing school, and that is how I kept on striving until I have managed to finish my school even though I did not pass my grade twelve with flying colours. All i can say today is thank you mom, she is my role model. Today I am working as an Administrative officer and assistant librarian at the Tsumkwe Community Library.
My name is Nǂaisa Ghauz from Namibia. I live in a small village called Tsumkwe in the North-Eastern parts of Namibia, Iam a San lady, iam from a San group called Ju,/’hoansi. I work as a Administrative officer and as an Assistant Librarian at the Tsumkwe Community Library. I am 26 years of age, I have five siblings of which I am the first born and being the first born have taught me one thing which is to be responsible and to be a role model to my siblings and not only to my siblings, but to the society within my community at large because I am one those few people that has completed school in my community. In the future iam welling to be more productive educational and economic wise in order to motivate my fellow San people especially the youth because we can not be marginalized forever. I am one of the satellite pioneers representing Tsumkwe once again thank you ǃkwattu for that opportunity.
