SHE has what it takes

Mariselle Stofberg

In life, one has little control over the things that happen to you, but Rashia Forbes believes that your true power lies in how you respond to the things that come your way.

“When you can’t control what’s happening, challenge yourself to control the way you respond to what’s happening. That’s where the power is! Fall, laugh at yourself, get up and try again.”

Forbes is the office coordinator for InTouch Interactive Marketing Pty (Ltd) under the Namibia Media Holdings (NMH) group and joined the NMH family in 2018.

Forbes completed her high school career at Jan Möhr High School and then attended the Namibia University of Science and Technology (NUST) for a bachelor’s degree in marketing. Until this point, work, family and her personal business endeavours had taken priority, but Forbes has proven that she always keeps going despite any challenge or struggle she might face.

“One of the challenges I faced was that each school or university has its own social culture and you learn that before anything else. It was hard to adapt to this new way of doing things and peer pressure was all around, but it took some reflecting and self-discovery to know that there was room in the world for my kind of being and it was okay to not stick to what everyone else was doing. It’s okay to be different,” Forbes added.

Forbes was announced as the SHE representative of the year 2019 for NMH. The SHE representative is a representative that covers safety, health, and environmental hazards. “I am absolutely stoked with being awarded the SHE Representative of the Year Award 2019. This award means I am being honoured for my hard work and that, I humbly appreciate.”

The duties of a SHE representative pertains to monitoring and enforcing the safety, health and environmental policies and guidelines of NMH and ensuring that these are implemented and maintained at the highest level, at all times.

“Our training enables us to extend our work beyond the workplace. We can assist with first aid and/or basic firefighting cases in the community as well,” Forbes added.

“Strictly enforcing SHE policies and guidelines enables us to have a safe and healthy environment to work in. Employees will achieve more when they are working in a safe and healthy environment. For companies the benefits can be significant: employee wellness benefits will be there, it can be reputational, financial and it also positively contributes to the going concern of the company to but name a few.”

Forbes is excited for the new year and the new prospects that await her, both professionally and personally.

“We’ve come to the end of a wonderful year. In my professional capacity I’m looking forward to a prosperous new year 2020 and I’m looking forward to working even harder.”

If she could change anything in the world, Rashia would love to slow down time and jokingly find a way of staying fresh for longer.

“We would still have our great grandparents around and maybe that would have allowed the smoother handover of knowledge in all spheres of life from one generation to the next.”

Forbes excels in the face of challenges, because she has the corporate superpower of regeneration to her disposal.

“Similar to Wolverine’s (X-men) regeneration abilities, I have the ability to weather any storm, failing fast and bouncing back stronger, determined and more focused.”