Wilhelmina Iimene
Rose-Mary Haufiku
The Namibia Power Corporation Foundation is celebrating 10 years of powering sustainability by uplifting communities and transforming the lives of the less privileged by supporting projects and initiatives that have a long-term impact and potential for sustainability.
The NamPower Foundation was established as a trust in 2008, and was later changed to a Foundation in 2010. Over the past 10 years, the company allocated approximately N$268 545 720 of its total budget towards corporate social investment (CSI) initiatives.
NamPower has invested in the areas of rural electrification, aimed at supplementing the government’s efforts to improve the standard of living for all citizens. It has and will continue to assist Namibians in areas of education, health and social welfare, community development, sports as well as capacity and skills development for the nation.
Education is one of the most important drivers of socio-economic development in any nation and has been supported through the provision of stationery, furniture as well as funding for infrastructural development and/or renovations, amongst others. Over the past 10 years, 14 regions of the country have benefited. NamPower aided the introduction of the Eduvision Online Learning scheme at the Tsumkwe Secondary School, a project that aimed to offer learners effective interactive classroom teaching in their own environment through e-learning techniques in order to help improve their school results. Satellite dishes and a Smartboard were put up at at the school, and directly connected the school to the Edugate Academy in Otjiwarongo. Three other schools which are currently on the same programme are the Okakarara Secondary School, Waterberg Junior Secondary School and Cornelius Goreseb Secondary School.
The lack of school materials such as beds and mattresses are still some of the greatest challenges for schools in underprivileged communities as learners continue to share beds, or worse, sleep on the floor in hostels. The foundation has so far donated 520 beds and 655 mattresses valued at over N$1.6 million to the Ministry of Education, Arts and Culture. NamPower employees also helped the foundation renovate the Katutura State Hospital in Windhoek in 2007. The common consensus was that the facility needed to be renovated, and that is exactly what the NamPower crew responded to and did when they pulled up their sleeves, gathered all unused but perfectly useable furniture and equipment, and spruced up areas of the 1973-built hospital. A doctors’ meeting room was built with their help and is fully-equipped.
Over the years, the foundation contributed N$9 999 734.51 to the National Science Fair. Thanks to the foundation’s generous sponsorship of Disability Sports Namibia (DSN) since 2011, the organisation has been able to send its athletes to national, regional and international competitions whenever they arise. This assistance includes paying for training camps, training fees, participation fees, subsistence and travel allowances, as well as all other costs associated with competing. The Namibia Paralympic Committee (NPC), Special Olympics Namibia and the Namibian National Association of the Deaf make up the DSN.
NamPower’s helpful hand has been stretched far out to reach start-ups in order to create employment and grow small entrepreneurship businesses. The Gwaitalale Pottery Project in the Khomas region is one of the beneficiaries of the foundation, where they received a pottery machine, building materials and sponsored training on Good Business Practices at the Namibia University of Science and Technology (NUST).
NamPower pledges, as long as resources allow, to uplift communities and transform the lives of the less privileged by supporting projects and initiatives that have a long-term impact and potential for sustainability.