2015-08-14Staff Report 2 Okalongo Haudano Penduka, a youth group from Okalongo, recently donated 40 blankets to elderly people at eight of the 31 villages in the Okalongo Constituency. The group, which was recently set up on the popular social networking site, WhatsApp, plans to extend the same gesture to all villages in the constituency by December. So far the beneficiaries of the blankets have mostly been elderly persons above the age of 70 and those, who were found to be vulnerable and in no position to fend for themselves. Chief of the Ombadja, Matias Kaunashoto Walaula, pleaded with other youth who were not part of the initiative to emulate the example of their peers by assisting the elderly in the community. “Today you have demonstrated that you are future leaders,” said Walaula, while he applauded the youth for their praiseworthy gesture. “Patience really pays off and today I cannot stop smiling because such things we only hear of happening in other constituencies,” said one of the recipients. The founder of the group, Leopold Michael, said the idea of donating blankets to the elderly was initiated on July 6, 2015 when the cold of winter had started to set in. “We just thought that if we are feeling this cold, then our elderly must also be feeling extremely cold and that is why we came up with the idea. And today we are putting our idea into practice,” said Michael. The online group has many members, but only eight contributed amounts of N$500 and above. Michael said the group was created to bring people from Okalongo together to socialise, share development ideas, as well as to assist vulnerable people in the community. “These days people from the same village no longer socialise, you either only meet at funerals and weddings or other functions and that is why we created this platform,” he said. 2015-08-14Staff Report 2
