Gobabis-Born Patience Masua Values Volunteering

Patience Masua is only 20 years old, but has a vision to impact and change communities.

A passion for volunteering, Masua says, drove her to become the person she is today. Born at Gobabis, the aspiring human rights lawyer aims to create policies focusing on human rights – and this eagerness to change lives for the better may just stamp her name in the history books.

YouthPaper caught up with her to hear her story.

When Masua was two years old, she moved to Windhoek. She later completed her secondary education at Delta Secondary School where she was elected deputy head girl and president of the school’s debating society. Her desire to help people started from a young age – she is a volunteer with Change 1’s Life, an organisation founded by Edmilson Angelo which later spilled into Namibia thanks to Jose da Costa, a passionate volunteer who previously told YouthPaper: “We forget we are fortunate to be living in a comfortable life”.

Speaking on her role in debating, Masua says she was always took part in debating competitions such as in 2016 when she participated in the fifth Annual Model United Nations (Munnam) High School Conference in Windhoek, winning the best school award with her team members Thelma Mackinza and Gabriel Haughk. In the same year, she debated with her team in Botswana for the Orate Africa Debate Championships. “Our team was the first Namibian high school team to break,” Masua says.

When she was in Grade 12, Masua was sent to Germany by the German Embassy of Namibia and took part in the ‘Schools: Partners for the Future’ (PASCH) conference. “It was fantastic!” she recalls of her experience.

To date, Masua has published three opinion pieces on issues such as Emotional Intelligence in combating gender-based violence (GBV), gender inequality and economic inequality.

Over the years, she has also been invited to deliver motivational speeches, including at her school where she delivered a talk at the Day of the African Child celebrations as well as being the MC at the World Aids Day commemorations in 2017 at Katima Mulilo.

In her spare time, she volunteers at the Office of the First Lady as well. “I value volunteerism,” Masua shares with a smile. “In my first year at the University of Namibia (Unam), I volunteered for the international relations office and as volunteers, we would assist in coordinating projects for the office.” This is where she slightly scaled down on debating.

In 2017, Masua, upon nomination of her university, joined over 60 students in Malaysia for the Commonwealth Universities Residential Programme where they assisted with drafting a policy – and this was during Masua’s first year pursuing law (LLB) at Unam. In the same year, she, along with 70 other African youth, drafted the youth position of wildlife conservation policy. Passionate about all things public management, human rights and youth development, she feels law represents her beliefs and values.

“I was a faculty of law representative so I had to scale down on volunteerism,” Masua adds. November 2018 saw Masua participate in a breakfast run on GBV as a part of the Office of the First Lady’s volunteering team, as well as speaking as a panelist on gender-based violence. “I was eventually elected as a speaker of the Unam Student Union Parliament. We are responsible for holding the SRC accountable for their duties.”

Afterwards, Masua joined the Mandela Washington Fellowship’s flagship Young African Leaders Initiative, which she completed recently. “The applications are so intense,” Masua says with a laugh. “They always want to know what you have done to make your community a better place. What I want is for the Namibian youth to value the power of volunteerism,” she says.

“In high school, I used to mentor pupils who had a passion for impacting lives at a community level. I think volunteerism is the essence of what built me. I don’t agree with exploitation, I agree with serving.”

Masua advises young people to go out there, identify an underprivileged school and do things like teach children how to read or other basic skills in life.

“All you need to give is your time.”

Just recently, Masua and a couple of her friends were on the outskirts of Gobabis for a food donation campaign. “What I realised is that the international community values volunteerism and so should we.”

In future, Masua plans on taking on a master’s degree in human rights law and internatinoal law abroad, seeing as this programme is not offered in the country. “There’s a video clip of me when I was eight years old and I said that when I grew up, I wanted to be a motivational speaker. Coupled with law, it all makes sense now. It has always been within me”.

Masua says she has always loved history, especially when she was younger, and this was also a factor that pushed her into law. “I just wanted to see why the political set-up is the way it is in Namibia. Debate was one of the things that gave me a passion to help people through publishing newspaper articles and youth advocacy. I believe law is one of the most powerful tools to drive societal change. I love it.”

And even though she describes herself as timid, Masua says she adores speaking. “Debate teaches you the art of critical analysis, objectivity and persuasion.”

When she’s not out and about challenging laws, she’s either running, going to the gym or tutoring. “Tutoring has actually taught me so much patience,” she admits.

On her playlist, you will find Vusi Nova, Nathi or Joyous Celebration.

All this isn’t the end of her story, though. She says she’s in the process of creating something major and will announce the project in due time.