2018-05-24Staff Report 2 Emmency Nuukala WINDHOEK - A dream to have her own house that has been deferred for the past 20 years came true yesterday for 56-year-old Helena David and her family when Namibia Breweries Limited (NBL) handed her the keys of a two-bedroom house worth N$500,000. After being selected as the overall winner of the King Lager ‘Win a House’ competition in 2017, Helena’s dreams materialised. As a member of the Twangana group of shack dwellers for 20 years, Helena and other members saved N$50 dollars monthly. In 2005 they were able to purchase a 66,612 square metre plot in Goreangab area from the Windhoek Municipality, which the group of 247 members divided among themselves. Helena, who is a cleaner, her husband who is unemployed and their five children, all hailing from Oshikoto Region in the north, lived in a shack in the informal settlement of Babylon in the 90s. In 2005 after the purchase of the plot they moved to Goreangab, where she and her husband lived with three of their children, three grandchildren and four other children from her extended family. When Helena took the chance to enter the King Lager ‘Win a House’ competition, she didn’t think much about it till she got the call that left her in shock. “My legs were shaking,” said Helena. Her husband Joel David, also aged 56, said he didn’t even know his wife had entered the competition, and upon hearing the news he couldn’t believe his ears and had commented that he wouldn’t believe until he saw the house. Her eldest son Tyson David, 28, at the handing over ceremony expressed gratefulness to God and NBL for the prize. When asked what his initial reaction was when he first heard about his mother’s win, he said he had asked is the N$500,000 in cash. “I am very proud of my mother,” said Tyson. The construction of the two-bedroom house, which consists of a lounge, kitchen and a bathroom, started on March 8, 2018 and was officially completed on May 18. The house has electricity and the NBL managing director Wessie van der Westhuizen promised Helena that they would facilitate the connection of water to the house. “We are extremely proud and humbled by the opportunity to make meme Helena’s dream come true through King Lager,” said Van der Westhuizen. When New Era spoke to Helena, she was extremely excited and said she would be moving into her new home over the weekend already. She said that for years she struggled to have her own home and was even about to give up when King Lager gave her this opportunity that she would forever be grateful for. 2018-05-24Staff Report 2
