Raphael Maletzky is a 19 year old boy currently residing in Windhoek Namibia studying at the Polytechnic of Namibia in pursue of a degree in IT networking. Raphael Maletzky, the son of Venetia Alice Maletzky and Richard Maletzky and older brother to Heather Maletzky, was born in the capital city of Namibia Windhoek at the Central Hospital of Windhoek on the 13th of January 1991. Raphael is an energetic, kind, friendly and enthusiastic person as he tries to be the reason why people smile especially when their having somewhat of a really bad day. He would be the person who would walk up to a complete stranger, smile and say ‘you have a wonderful dress/hat/coat on and I like it.’ Raphael is extremely social and enjoys music, exercising, new challenges and having fun.

It was a Sunday afternoon at exactly 17:10 when he took his first glance at the world as he stared up at the team of nurses, doctors and people who loved him unconditionally. Born 1 month prematurely, Raphael Maletzky remained in the incubator for 4 days. Unfit for traveling at the time, His mother resided in Windhoek until September 1991 after which they drove back to her home town Lüderitz, Namibia where they lived for 8 years of their lives. In the month of October 1999, Raphael and his parents moved to Swakopmund, Namibia where they remained until Raphael moved to Windhoek and left his family behind to study at the polytechnic of Namibia in January 2010.

As a toddler, Raphael was quite normal but an accident that struck his life when he was only 3 years old knocked him literally off his feet. Playing behind a girl swinging on a swing proved to be one of the first lessons he learned as the swing knocked him against his head, which knocked Raphael over and he landed head first, on a rock and couldn't stand after that. The local doctor told Venetia that her son has had his sense of balance damaged and he'd have to learn how to walk from the start. This proved to be one of the toughest times for the both of them as Richard was out to see. Raphael father worked as a boiler-maker for Namdeb for the duration of the time that they lived in Lüderitz. His job entitled him to be at see for 6 months and return for 2 months. Raphael's accident occurred during the first month of his father's six month working duty. After 7 months of literally struggling to his feet, Raphael could walk again but yet another disastrous event was just around the corner called Yellow fever! The disease struck Raphael when he was only 4 years old. It nearly ended his life, as the medicine didn't seem to do anything, but by some miracle Raphael started to smile again and laugh. That first smile on his face while having that horrible disease was one of his mother's happiest moments of her life, because after that she knew that everything would be o.k.

Throughout his life, Raphael has achieved a number of goals that he has set his mind upon reaching including:

• A grade 12 certificate
• A certified PC engineer certificate
• A certified MCSE certificate
• A student at Polytechnic of Namibia
• A black belt in karate
• More than 30 gold medals

In the year 1997 and at the age of 6, Raphael had his first day of school at Lüderitz Primary School. This was one huge challenge as it would’ve been for any other child as it is the first time you’ll be away from Mommy ‘all’ day. This didn’t become much of a hassle for the young boy as he soon became friends with everyone in his class and achieved this by doing what he still does to this day, making people laugh and smile. When the family moved to Swakopmund in 1999, Raphael was sad that he had to start making new friends but as nature would have it, by the end of the week Raphael had most of the class talking about him. He remained at Westside High until his grade 12 year. During his school years, Raphael tried to participate in many sports and see which one suited him best. Soccer didn’t work out too well as his couch told him that unfortunately his foot just didn’t get the ball where it was supposed to. Tennis didn’t work out either when the ball kept on flying past the racket held by his hand. He even tried hockey, but that choice turned out to be the worst choice ever. The hockey stick just didn’t want to remain in his hands and always landed in some guys face. 4 bruised faces later Raphael decided to try out a sport that turned out to be a very interesting choice, karate. Late in 2000, Raphael became a karateka (karate pupil) and wore this title proudly for the next 6 years of his life. In 2007 he had more than 30 gold medals to his name, 2 trophies, 5 consecutive years as the karateka with the best spirit award and became the youngest karateka in his academy to obtain a senior black belt. In the year 2008 Raphael wrote his final exam as a grade 12 learner at Westside high Swakopmund.

In the year 2009, Raphael enrolled himself into the Institution of Information Technology (IIT) Swakopmund and started his studies to become a systems administrator. This was of course not his first choice of field of study, where in fact the very first choice was to become a taxi driver. His mother asked him what his motive was for deciding to become a taxi driver and he simply replied ”because the man takes you where you want to go and without him asking for it you just give him money”. This thought changed over the years as Raphael grew up and went from being a taxi driver to being some sort of hero like a fireman or doctor. A range of ideas came to mind when people asked him what he would like to become one day, one of the most fascinating ones was to become Namibia’s best actor. Unfortunately the Namibian acting career didn’t work out too well as he was advised against it by his parents, they told him that an acting career in Namibia isn’t stable enough for a family one day. Later on his choice moved to being a pilot, which till to this day is still his dream. Unfortunately, to study for a pilot’s license, you have to be quite financially stable. Raphael graduated at the top of his class from IIT in 2009, obtained a PC Engineering (PCE) certificate and the Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer (MCSE) certificate. He then moved to Windhoek to continue his studies in the line of becoming a systems administrator. The Polytechnic of Namibia wouldn’t accept him at first as there were too many students trying to do Information Technology, but this did not stop him from trying to achieve his goals. Raphael returned to the Polytechnic of Namibia every day for 3 weeks to plead for a position in their school and the head of department for IT eventually agreed to enroll him into the system. Raphael promised not to disappoint and has kept his promise to this day.

Raphael Maletzky in all his presence can certainly be regarded as one of the people you would cross and actually enjoy being around as he is the person that will make your day if not your year. He has proven time and time again that he can be one of the most reliable people you’ll ever meet and loyalty won’t fall short of that either. One of Raphael’s most cherished mottos that he lives his life by is ‘You’re never too old to be young, so live your life the way you want’.