Alvine Kapitako
Windhoek-The Council of Churches in Namibia (CCN) is yet to recover from its financial woes and is calling on sponsors to come to its rescue.
CCN needs at least N$3 million to continue with its operations as a non-governmental organization (NGO).
“We are still in the same situation. If there are people who want to come on board, that would help,” Ludwig Beukes, the acting secretary general of the CCN, confirmed to New Era yesterday.
New Era reported in May this year the CCN owes the Windhoek Municipality N$219,000 for electricity and N$308,000 for water.
At the time, the council owed Telecom Namibia N$43,000 and its telephone line has been disconnected for the last six months.
“We managed to pay some of our municipality debts and we currently have water and electricity,” said Beukes. However, the telephone line is still disconnected as that debt has not been settled.
“Here and there some individuals contacted us to assist and there was a company that pledged assistance to paint our building,” said Beukes.
When this publication visited the CCN yesterday staff could be seen basking in the sun, seemingly an indication of no work.
Beukes told New Era in an earlier interview that some of its programmes had to be stopped because of a lack of funds.
The faith, justice and society unit at the CCN – which had the important task of teaching society on matters related to faith and justice – had to close down completely because of no funds.
Similarly, the gender-based violence unit had to be shifted to a member church in order to sustain it. Beukes also said they had to sell two houses, one in Wanaheda and another in Pioneers Park, to settle some of its debts, but this did not solve the council’s financial woes.
The organisation derives its income from donors who were the main financial source, member churches as well as through the rental of some of its properties. Following Namibia’s classification as a middle-income country many donors withdrew from Namibia as well as their support of CCN and other organisations they had funded.