Libertine Amadhila

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Libertine Amadhila

Libertine Amadhila was born on December 1940 at Fransfontein in the Kunene Region. She is Namibia’s first black woman medical doctor. She joined Swapo in 1962 and travelled into exile in Tanzania in the same year. She was given a scholarship to study medicine in Poland, completing her degree at Warsaw Medical Academy in 1969 under Swapo’s Nationhood Programme. In 1975 she dropped specialisation studies in Sweden to work in Swapo’s camps in Zambia.

Honourable Libertine Amadhila served as Swapo’s Deputy Secretary for Health and Welfare from 1970 until 1989 and as Director of the Swapo Women’s Council from 1970 to 1976. She joined the Central Committee in 199 and became a member of the Politburo in 1991.

Her work in the health field has been internationally recognised. In 2000 – o1 she was the President of the World Health Assembly, while in 1999-2000 she chaired the World Health Organization’s Regional Committee for Africa. She was awarded one of Swapo’s highest honours – the Ongulumbashe Medal and Long Service in 1987. In 1991 she became the first African woman to win the Nansen Medal from the United Nations to mark her work with women and children in refugee camps. Dr. Libertine Amadhila received one of Namibia’s top awards, the Order of the Eagle, at a ceremony to mark Hereroes Day in 2002.

Dr. Libertine Amadhila also completed a Financial course for non-financial managers, Columbia University, US (1993), Advance Executive Programme from Unisa (1992), Diplom in Epidemiology, Mali (1983) and a Post graduate diploma in Public Health, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (1977-1978)

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