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Food Bank programme extended to !Nami#nus

2018-07-30  Staff Report 2

Food Bank programme extended to !Nami#nus
Tuulikki Abraham LUDERITZ – Impoverished households at Lüderitz in //Kharas Region will start receiving food parcels after the Ministry of Poverty Eradication last Friday rolled out the Food Bank to the coastal town in its quest to reduce poverty and ensure all Namibians live a dignified life. !Nami#nus Constituency Councillor Jan Scholtz, applauded the Minister of Poverty Eradication and Social Welfare, Zephania Kameeta, for being committed to the programme that forms part of President Hage Geingob’s Harambee Prosperity Plan (HPP). Under HPP, government has declared a full-scale war against poverty, as it wants to reduce the high-income gulf between the haves and the have-nots. “Your path towards the materialisation of this programme was not an easy one, while the people at the grassroots level wholeheartedly welcomed the idea, many saw it as just another failed project. Many chose to look at it from a narrow angle of creating a dependency syndrome and deliberately overlooked the obvious reality of poverty in our communities. But being the avid servant of your people, you never wavered. You forged on until it was successfully implemented and rolled out, and today, I stand a happy councillor knowing that less, if not zero people in my constituency will be without food,” said Scholtz. Kameeta stated the launch marked another milestone in the quest to ensure no Namibian goes to bed hungry or in a worst-case scenario dies from hunger. “Household food insecurity is one of the major underling cause of malnutrition, a situation that has led the World Health Organisation (WHO) to consider household food and nutrition security as a basic human right. Addressing poverty hunger in Namibia, therefore speaks to the basic building blocks of a caring nation,” stressed Kameeta. “Hunger is the lowest level of poverty, it is only logical that His Excellency the President, in the Harambee Prosperity Plan, tasked the Ministry of Poverty Eradication and Social Welfare together with other key government offices, agencies and ministries to address hunger poverty. The establishment of the Food Bank is one way of addressing hunger, especially in the urban and peri-urban areas. Other programmes include improving agricultural productivity, school feeding programmes and the provision of food during natural disasters such as droughts and floods,” reiterated Kameeta. The first ever Food Bank programme In Namibia was launched by the president on January 30, 2016 in Windhoek. This was followed by the distribution of dry food items in seven constituencies of the Khomas Region as part of the initial pilot programme. Kameeta indicated that government through the various ministries and government agencies remains committed to the maintenance of the well-being of all Namibians as enshrined in the country’s supreme law, the Constitution. “We shall however, not shy away from constructive and innovative ideas that will assist in ushering the country to prosperity for all,” emphasised the poverty eradication minister. He called upon every Namibian including the new Food Bank beneficiaries, to join government efforts to eradicate poverty in all its manifestations. “Let us use the conductive socio-economic environment provided by our President and his administration, not to fight each other, but to improve our living conditions and of our fellow citizens,” counselled Kameeta. About 150 beneficiaries received food parcels at the inaugural event at Lüderitz. One of the beneficiaries Nangula Potsane appreciated the Food Bank initiative, as she believes it will make a difference in the lives of many hunger-stricken families.
2018-07-30  Staff Report 2

Tags: Khomas
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