Building a quality future

Helena Ndapandula Kanjumbwa, also known as Elle to her friends, grew up in the Ausspannplatz area of Windhoek, a place that she says is where she made her friends with whom she is still in contact today. “Although I’ve lived in four different locations over the past nine years, Ausspannplatz is home,” she told The Zone.
She says that she is one for casual and mature debate, as it makes for a healthy argument, which according to Helena, serves as an opportunity to gain new perspective. “I however tend to be shy and reserved,” she added in tandem.
She is currently studying Paralegal Studies at Unam, a course in life, she shared, adding to her passion for social issues. “I appreciate politics and I’m aware of current affairs, but my inclination thereto is passive, whereas with social issues, such as the dynamics of poverty and the disenfranchisement of the masses, with that I’m excessively active. It goes beyond just affiliation.”
She shared that Valery Amos, the eighth United Nations under secretary-general for humanitarian affairs and emergency relief coordination, has been a great inspiration on her journey as a young woman passionate about social welfare matters.
She said that through conversations about how unfortunate it is that impoverished people live in such awful circumstances, these became part of the defining moments that have led her to live her life the way she does at present.
“It’s good to talk about it and acknowledge that it’s there, but when it’s simply all talk, it becomes a problem. In as much as I spoke about it, I wanted to become active and see how I can make this conversation not only productive, but beneficial to the subject. I was 17 at the time and I haven’t looked back since,” she told The Zone.
Helena got involved in the Model United Nations (MUN) programme in 2012 when she was in Grade 11. She says that MUN has significantly contributed to the manner in which she articulates herself and the way in which it has solidified the relevance of her opinion objectively and unapologetically.
“I’m of the conviction that this extracurricular educational activity should be compulsory. It has opened up several spheres of my mental capacity I never even knew existed. It has taught me that I shouldn’t have to compete with the man, that is petty and elementary, If anything, the man and I should work cohesively for the sake of the people we claim to be working for,” she believes.
She says through MUN she has had the opportunity to not only test the waters as an aspiring diplomat, but enhance and amplify all the different skills that come with having to be in that line of work. “I have extensively been exposed to what its really like to be confronted with all these pressing problems on the international agenda, and having to solve them by just dialogue alone’ she shared.
Helena says that she initially underestimated the intensity of all the work diplomats do. “Apart from community development and social progression, diplomacy and foreign relations is my field of interest,” she held.
Apart from facilitating the MUN programme, she has recently taken on an initiative where she identifies schools in impoverished communities around Windhoek that are of an informal nature, structurally dilapidated and deprived of essential educational resource.
She says that she has done this with the aim of rebuilding the schools into concrete establishments, “so as to provide a conducive and adequate learning environment for the impoverished Namibian child.”
Other than that, Helena says that she tries hard to not break off more than she can chew, “Because substance and quality always outweigh quantity.
“I would rather involve myself in one or two projects at a time, that way I know the results will be exceptional, as opposed to branching myself out into several directions and producing substandard or incompetent results.”
She keeps a healthy balance between school and her other activities through her belief that from a healthy relationship with God. “If you are in right standing with the Lord, it has this domino effect throughout the other aspects of your life. That coupled with consistent positive thinking and positive action, simply really,” she commented.
To other young Namibians that want to go out there and help their fellow man, Helena advises that you first of all need to reconcile yourself with the reality that we will always be required to prove ourselves, and therefore need to try twice as hard to make the difference we want to see within ourselves and our communities.
“It’s not about you. Learn to put your feelings and emotions aside for the sake of the people you claim to be working hard for,” she counselled.
From her work she says that she has learned that learning never stops. “It has broken me down, worn me out, got me tired, but that’s normal. I’ve learned that you have to have some other degree of emotional maturity and internal strength to see the work through to completion,” she said.
In the next ten years she says that she would love to see to it that not one child is subject to learn and be educated in an environment or physical structure that is not substantive and mentally stimulating.
Keith Vries