Taking their neuroscience home to Namibia for Brain Awareness Week!
Two young Neuroscience Institute neuroscientists: Dr Amalia Awala (current postdoc, Dangarembizi Lab) and Jessica Kanyemba (MSc student, Raimondo Lab) held an incredible Brain Awareness Week activity in their home country of Namibia, funded by an IBRO-Dana grant and with a little extra help from us (how could we not)!?
They spent the week of 17 - 21st of August at Onethindi Primary School, located in a rural community in Ondangwa, northern Namibia - where they engaged with over 750 STUDENTS!!! (from grades 1 to 7) and around 35 teachers and staff.
Through age-appropriate lectures, creative art projects, neural-signalling games, and microscopy sessions; learners built a foundational understanding of brain structure and function, many for the first time. This sparked conversation about the biological basis of neurological and mental health conditions such as epilepsy, depression, and anxiety, and was fundamental to challenging stigma and misconceptions that relate these disorders to witchcraft or spiritual causes.
Programmes like these bridge a significant gap by bringing fields like neuroscience to communities where exposure is minimal. By meeting learners where they are, with hands-on, age-appropriate activities, these initiatives don't just teach facts about the brain; they plant the seed of scientific curiosity in children who may never otherwise have imagined a future in research or medicine.
Just as importantly, they equip teachers with new tools, open doors for policy dialogue, and build lasting partnerships between researchers and the communities they serve - showing that science should be accesible to everyone.
Building on this momentum these young pioneers already have plans to make 🇳🇦 Brain Awareness Week Namibia 🇳🇦 an annual event, expanding into secondary schools and additional community level formats across Namibia.
If you'd like to support please contact amalia.awala@uct.ac.za
Consent was received for the photographs used.