In September we have called for applications for a scholarship worth N$7500 to be awarded to young Namibians in need for financial assistance for their further education. We intentionally did not restrict the scholarship to a specific study course or institution as we wanted to offer this opportunity to as many people as possible. After all, we have received 15 applications from young people with high ambitions, goals and motivation. Unfortunately, we could not award all of them so we had to assess the students in a process in which our jury scanned the applicants’ CVs, motivation letters and their final results. It took two weeks to decide on the candidate as it was difficult to make a decision as the they all fit in our requirements. We have finally decided on Johanna Shikomba, a Science Geology student in her third year at University of Namibia (UNAM). We have chosen her because her school results are outstanding. This, however, was not the major deciding criteria. Her parents are unemployed and she has to add N$6000 to her tuition fees plus N$1500 for her accommodation to the loan she already receives. Being awarded with a scholarship does not mean that the cooperation is done as soon as the money was transferred. Throughout the scholarship, the scholarship-holders must show evidence of their training and educational participation at their respective school every three months. In addition to that, the scholarship-holder is asked to submit inputs for our webpage each month, such as articles, essays, photos, videos or brief descriptions of her experiences. We are convinced that Johanna will meet our prerequisites. This scholarship was the first scholarship awarded by “Welwitschia – Education Initiative for Namibia”. We are planning to offer more in 2014.

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