By Chrispin Inambao WINDHOEK Bank Windhoek, moved by the story of 163 orphans left in the cold and whose consignment of warm clothing donated by residents of Luxembourg was on the verge of being returned, has rescued the situation by paying import duty on the goods. Yesterday the bank through its Communication Practitioner for Sponsorships and Social Investment Fund, Michelle Oppel-Schmidt, donated almost N$9 000 so that Elizabeth Hilger who looks after 163 orphaned children at Theresia’s Orphans and Vulnerable Children Foundation in Kavango can pay import duty on, and for the transportation of, the goods. Also yesterday the Minister of Homes Affairs and Immigration, Rosalia Nghidinwa, made a N$500 donation from her own purse, while Levy Kamalanga made a pledge of N$2 000. And Woker Freight Services has undertaken to pay for the permit to clear the goods, while Desert Logistics would provide transportation from Windhoek to Rundu at no cost. It is not the first time that Nghidinwa, who is a compassionate figure, assists orphans in Kavango from where she hails, as she also funds and runs a kindergarten that targets orphans whom she pampers with a Christmas party at the end of each year. These goods from Europe have been kept in a warehouse at Walvis Bay since February. And the irony here is these orphans, many of them not yet in their teens, would have gone cold this winter. Not for lack of warm clothing, because donors in Luxembourg responded generously to a request by Hilger on behalf of these souls who are in dire need, but because authorities tightened the existing taxation law after unscrupulous business people in the past abused legal loopholes to dodge import duty. Over a week ago New Era ran a story on how 250 kg of second-hand clothing, blankets, pyjamas and toys were about to be returned after being shipped thousands of kilometres from Luxembourg, a high-income country whose citizens generously donated the goods. And Woker Freight Services, a clearing and forwarding company that serves as a go-between, between importers and customs could not clear the goods when the Ministry of Finance demanded she pay N$6 250 import duty, at N$25 per kilo, for the donated wares. And when told the goods could be returned back to Luxembourg, Elizabeth Hilger contacted the line ministry that insisted she pay duty or forfeits the goods. After which she even contacted the Ministry of Gender Equality and Child Welfare. But instead she was told authorities could not grant her a rebate exempting her from paying import duty. The explanation being Namibia is a member of the Southern African Customs Union (SACU) lumping together several countries, and that such exemption could be a protracted process. The bank made the praiseworthy donation despite it having already exhausted the N$1.3 million budgeted for charity from its social investment fund for the 2006/07 financial year. It also finances the Bank Windhoek Arts Festival, the Bicycle Ambulance Project, a scheme that makes bicycle ambulances for the rural areas, and there is an entrepreneurship scheme targeting inmates at the Windhoek Central Prison, among other initiatives it bankrolls. Oppel-Schmidt said each month the bank is also inundated with up to 100 appeals for all sorts of assistance from those genuinely in need and others with dubious motives. “The needs out there are so big you cannot say no,” said the communication practitioner who said she was very “touched” when she read the story on the 163 orphans in Kavango. On her part the philanthropic, inspirational businesswoman from Rundu expressed sincere gratitude to the bank for its donation that would result in the children receiving the goods possibly by the end of this month when temperatures at Mavanze village normally plummet to as low as freezing point between May and June. Mavanze is in Rundu Rural West constituency, where Herbert Shihuameni is the councillor. The issue of orphans and so-called street kids in Kavango is worsening, more so with the multitude of these unfortunate children losing their parents to AIDS-related complications. And one concerned woman at one stage said some women from poor households were dumping their children “like puppies” with a level of unprecedented reckless abandon. The Minister of Home Affairs and Immigration further undertook to send a team to Mavanze village so that the orphans there could receive the much-needed birth certificates that would enable them to be registered for monthly grants of up to N$200 per child.