Japan helps a dream come true

Ms Alina Uusiku, a graduate of the University of Namibia (UNAM)’s dream of advancing her research work in science, comes true on the 2nd of April when she leaves for Japan to do just that.
A holder of bachelor and master degrees in chemistry from the Faculty of Science at UNAM, Ms. Uusiku will join the Applied Chemistry of Chemical Engineering Programme at the Graduate School of Engineering of the Kogakuin University in Tokyo, Japan, from October 2016, following a 6 month Japanese language course in Tokyo. This was all made possible through a Japanese Government’s full scholarship programme offered by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology (MEXT). Experiencing the challenges of lacking and expensive power energy in rural areas in Namibia has motivated her to further her studies.
On Thursday this week Ms. Uusiku, accompanied by Dr. Daniel Likius, former MEXT scholarship recipient, Lecturer, Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry and Chairman of the Research and Publication Committee of Faculty of Science, UNAM, paid a courtesy call on H.E. Mr. Hideyuki Sakamoto, Ambassador of Japan to Namibia. Ambassador Sakamoto wished her all the best in her advanced study in Japan.
Ms. Uusiku is the 7th Namibian research student who has received the MEXT scholarship since its inception in Namibia in 2006. The total number of research students fully sponsored by the Government of Japan including MEXT scholarship to date is 10, and 5 are currently studying in Japan. The Embassy of Japan, in view of its establishment of a resident Embassy in Windhoek in 2015, wishes to enhance such academic exchanges, among other bilateral cooperation, as one of the mid-long term drivers for strengthening bilateral relation as well as for nation building.