women-scientists-from-namibia

"We have tried as much as possible to enable households to remain faithful to these methods even during the stay at home campaign. Our programs have continued as planned during lockdown periods as we were granted permission from the Ministry of Health to continue implementing our activities so those who wanted family planning methods were still able to access them through our VHCTs."

"many African countries do not have reliable and affordable electricity, and there is only one operational nuclear power plant on the entire continent. I strongly believe that the development of more nuclear power generation facilities on the African continent will powerfully support development while at the same time contribute to the reduction in greenhouse gas emissions."

"I think there is no special importance to have female scientists in the area of nuclear science, but there should be female scientists in all areas of science. I think so because I have made the experience that teams comprised of both men and women are more productive and innovative, as men and women usually have different ways to look at things and therefore complement each other."

"For the past century, human endeavour and technological innovation have played a leading role in diamond mining in Namibia, and have shaped the country's economy and society like no other sector of the Namibian mining industry. I therefore felt that the 100th anniversary of the first diamond find presented a unique opportunity to compile a comprehensive historical review of developments and events in the Namibian diamond-mining industry, in particular since no such an all-embracing attempt has been made to date. Industrial and building heritage within Namibia's diamond areas is slowly but surely succumbing to the forces of nature, and thus needed to be documented urgently. Much of the intangible heritage has already been lost, as only few people who witnessed the early days are still available to tell of their experiences."

"Birth control helps conservation by reducing poverty and hunger in communities that live around protected areas and wildlife-rich habitats. If families are better able to balance the family budget by having fewer children to feed, they are less likely to enter the park for food and fuelwood and are better able to send their children to school, enabling them to break the cycle of poverty."

"We train Village Health and Conservation Teams (VHCTs) to incorporate family planning into their routine household visits so that appropriate and voluntary family planning methods are more accessible and available to those who want them. High population growth and density places greater pressure on natural resources and increases competition for food and land – creating opportunities for human-wildlife conflict and increasing the likelihood of land encroachment of protected areas, poaching, and illegal entry into protected areas and heightening the risk of zoonotic disease transmission."

"We have continued to offer voluntary family planning through our Village Health and Conservation Teams (VHCTs) who have been following strict SOPs during their household visits to prevent the spread of COVID-19 (including regular hand washing, sanitizing, and mask-wearing). People have been able to get three monthly interval contraceptive injections in the comfort of the home of a VHCT who also distribute other methods of family planning including pills, condoms and refer community members for longer-term methods including implants and Intrauterine Devices (IUDs)."

"Namibia is one of the key Southern African country with an extensive wealth of archaeological heritage and the densest concentration has been recorded in the central region of Erongo with more than 400 archaeological sites harbouring over 65000 known ancient rock paintings and engravings."

"Studies have revealed a systematic outright destructive actions inflicted on this fragile heritage landscape as a result of mining, on the large and small scale, activities involving outright destruction of archaeological sites and disruption of its landscape, meanwhile the country’s situation has been exacerbated further by other anthropogenic activities emanating from increased tourism and uncontrolled access to archaeological sites in Erongo, the Society concluded."

"I think most people think that you’re almost born to be an archaeologist. I wasn’t that kid who played in a sandbox and dreamed of being a future archaeologist. My own experiences and interests were different."

"I would often sit around the soldiers guarding our camp and curiously and constantly question them about life outside the camp. I wanted to see it for myself and often contemplated an escape out the camp one day unnoticed to see what was out there but my fear of the forests stopped me."

"Many people may find archaeology to be incomprehensible and a tedious thing of the past, I am convinced that anyone who makes the effort to understand it will realise that it’s a rewarding experience, because these prehistoric remnants carry messages that are universal in the fullest sense of the word."

"In 1972 the Namib Palaeo Ecology Project became part of the programme of the Desert Ecological Research Unit (DERU). This magnificently equipped Research Institute had been established in 1963 at Gobabeb in the Namib Desert Park (now the Namib Naukluft Park). The results of the first phase of the archaeological project (Sandelowsky 1977a) presented a model suggesting the protection of the environment in the park and envisaged the cooperation of everyone interested in preserving the park. The following paper is based on the unpublished report about the work done during 1977/8. More evidence was sought on past climatic change and the prehistory of the Kuiseb River area."

"The information gained at the main site, Mirabib, was to be verified and elaborated on. The results have here been summarized under the following headings: Finds of Early and Middle Stone Age tool sites Sites relating to Mirabib and the Later Stone Age Stone structures indicating herding Settlement Sites - past and present Oral traditions Archaeo-botany at Mirabib."

"I have always been agitated by discrimination on the grounds of colour and women inequality in particular. I took up a position as a teacher decades ago at a primary school in Walvis Bay. During those years salary discrimination between male and female teachers was rife. I stood up against this sort of discrimination."

"At one time I was considered to be an agitator for the rights of the previously disadvantaged at the coast. I later found out that I was a marked person by the authorities at the time. However, I did not allow anyone to intimidate me up to this day."

"This is already happening in many other parts of the world, and amongst others, the aggressive application of nuclear science in Africa can significantly speed up the development of many an African country, thereby also contributing to the UN Sustainable Development Goals."

"Our challenges are not unique to our region. Many parts of the world will face similar pressures. Resource constraints create challenges that require innovative solutions, and this is what we are here to do."

"We need a fundamentally new way of skilling people. We can take our unemployed youth and put them through fast-paced, project-based “bootcamps”. I don’t believe in purely theoretical training anymore. A project-based approach where they learn just-in-time skills by working on real-world projects is ideal."

"HCI is less well known now than a decade ago and that students graduating with degrees in HCI end up being unemployed due to the lack of recognition for the importance of this work."

"So, strategies for infusing HCI into curriculum involve changing the conversation, For example, we integrated HCI into our core curricula through courses such as design thinking. I think the best approach to evangelize HCI throughout Africa is to jump on the 4th Industrial Revolution bandwagon and integrate HCI with new emerging courses such as AI, Machine Learning and Data Science, and Cybersecurity. So, we are developing the newly hyped programs with HCI integrated."

"A decolonisation project is concerned with how researchers, wherever located, might contribute to dismantling and re-envisioning existing power relations, resisting past biases, and balancing Western heavy influences in technology design."

"Innovation priorities span artificial intelligence, precision agriculture, digital health, and building telecommunications infrastructure – with plans for an “AI Institute” to upskill youth and export virtual AI capabilities."