Owning your story

Helene Bam
Helené Bam

“I hope you will go out and let stories that is life, happen to you, and that you will work with these stories... water them with your blood and tears and your laughter till they bloom, till you yourself burst into bloom.” ? Clarissa Pinkola Estés, Women Who Run With the Wolves

Something powerful happens when people take ownership of their lives and their stories. Taking ownership of your story means being an active participant in the life that you are living instead of a bystander whose story gets told by others. The My Zone team aims to create the platform for readers to do just that – a platform where the stories that happen to us and with us are given voice to.

This week, My Zone, the youth brand of Namibia Media Holdings (NMH) celebrates its third birthday! Since the publication of our first school newspaper on 12 February 2015 in the Khomas region we have extended our partnership with more than 50 schools in 6 regions of the country, created this weekly youth focused publication, published our Career Magazine at the Hashtag Festival, pioneered the Expo Times that are created by high school learners and varsity students at the Namibia Tourism Expo and have created the platform for our readers to contribute as active editorial members of our publication (see page 8).

Today, we celebrate the stories that you have shared with us for the past three years. We honour the stories of triumph, trial, sorrow, achievement and excellence that have found their way on our pages through your courage and determination. We are grateful that you have opened your schools, varsity’s, studios, offices, sport fields and homes to us and allowed us to get a glimpse of what the future leaders of this beautiful country are doing with their lives.

We trust that, with your partnership and by taking ownership of your own stories, we will continue to embrace our slogan “My Story, My Voice” for the months and years to come, this publication is a much yours as it is ours.

Helené Bam

Coordinating editor, My Zone