Appeal For Youth Volunteers

PLEASE allow me space in your respected newspaper to share my story on volunteerism with the Namibian unemployed youth.

I am Jarold Edwin !Nowaseb, a 27-year-old Namibian from Windhoek. I am currently in Gothenburg, Sweden, for four weeks on invitation by the Swedish Social Democratic Youth Organisation to conduct workshops and seminars on issues around HIV and AIDS.I met the Swedish delegation in March 2005 on invitation by the COD youth league to present a topic on positive living at a conference.I did all this on a voluntary basis.My career as a volunteer started in January 2003 when i joined Lironga Eparu, (The National Association of PLWHA) and I was trained as a Young Ambassador of Hope by them.In May 2003 I joined the Namibian Red Cross Society and was trained as a home-based care facilitator and I also had the opportunity to work within Katutura State Hospital as a nurse, something I always wanted to do.In February 2004 I joined Ibis, a non-governmental, non-profit Danish organisation, and I was trained as a positive speaker and I also worked with Catholic Aids Action and Johns Hopkins University and I am a volunteer at all these organisations because I have the interests of others at heart.We have a lot of young people who are unemployed and who do not know where to go.My advice to them would be to stand up and become volunteers in order to save lives and change behaviour and only then will they be able to see the beauty of life and be able to do something for themselves.I was also once unemployed but after volunteering I became part of a world that I did not know thanks to the abovementioned organisations.Jarold Nowaseb! Via e-mailI am currently in Gothenburg, Sweden, for four weeks on invitation by the Swedish Social Democratic Youth Organisation to conduct workshops and seminars on issues around HIV and AIDS.I met the Swedish delegation in March 2005 on invitation by the COD youth league to present a topic on positive living at a conference.I did all this on a voluntary basis.My career as a volunteer started in January 2003 when i joined Lironga Eparu, (The National Association of PLWHA) and I was trained as a Young Ambassador of Hope by them.In May 2003 I joined the Namibian Red Cross Society and was trained as a home-based care facilitator and I also had the opportunity to work within Katutura State Hospital as a nurse, something I always wanted to do.In February 2004 I joined Ibis, a non-governmental, non-profit Danish organisation, and I was trained as a positive speaker and I also worked with Catholic Aids Action and Johns Hopkins University and I am a volunteer at all these organisations because I have the interests of others at heart.We have a lot of young people who are unemployed and who do not know where to go.My advice to them would be to stand up and become volunteers in order to save lives and change behaviour and only then will they be able to see the beauty of life and be able to do something for themselves.I was also once unemployed but after volunteering I became part of a world that I did not know thanks to the abovementioned organisations.Jarold Nowaseb! Via e-mail