2018-08-03Staff Report 2 Obrein Simasiku OMUTHIYA - The Nurturing Ground Community Mobilisation Project, a charity organisation operating in Osiipita village in Okatope area of Oshikoto Region, is appealing for urgent funding because it is on the brink of collapse after donor funds dried up. The charity that existed since 2008 and whose operations relied heavily on donors for the past 10 years of its operations has come out in the open saying of late this assistance shrunk. Its founder Taura Fiina Iifo says they now have to rely on funds sourced from a restaurant although this revenue cannot alone sustain the organisation in the long run. The centre runs a soup kitchen and a pre-school for impoverished communities, catering for Orphans and Vulnerable Children (OVC) as well as the elderly. “As we stand, the centre is only dependent on the small sized restaurant which I operate adjacent to where I sell traditional food, as well assistance from PwC. I therefore call upon the corporate world and government to come on board for the survival of the organisation even beyond my existence, to serve the sole purpose of why it was established. I targeted the village because there are immense suffering and challenges,” she stressed. Iifo added the centre does not have sufficient food as well as some learning materials that are also needed to run its operations efficiently so that they could fulfil the needs of the poor. It has over the years assisted approximately 400 OVCs and some of its beneficiaries are currently pursuing studies at institutions of higher learning. At the age of 24, Iifo established the charity after she quit her teaching career in Windhoek and devoted her time to charity. Iifo said she invested all her pension payout into the charity. She previously worked as a volunteer for several charity organisations before setting her head straight to start uplifting the lives of the impoverished people in her home village. Currently aged 35, she said the major drive was when she returned to her village accompanied by a tourist, after 15 years of living in the city, and she realised that most of the school-going children could not understand English. “I always had the passion of taking care of the impoverished, considering my hardship upbringing, that’s why even when I was employed I had to be doing voluntary work. I was somehow fortunate and I was taken by my uncle to live in Windhoek when I was just 9-years-old. Most good things happens in the city, but then I thought about my own people, that is how the idea was developed, thus I want to give an opportunity to others with the God-given passion,” reminisced Iifo. In her quest to uplift the community, Iifo started a women corporative to enable women at her village to design baskets, to engage in weaving and tailoring, and she assist them to export their products to Finland and earn a decent income. “Despite all these interventions, I still feel limited because I am alone, I therefore need a strong team to join to preserve the legacy. However, I have learned to work like a sparrow and live within the available resources,” she concluded. 2018-08-03Staff Report 2
