WINDHOEK – The U.S. Embassy has awarded 10 Namibian grantees approximately N$425 000 to carry out development projects in their communities across the country through the Self-Help Grants Programme.
The American grants will affect the lives of over 2 000 Namibians directly, according to the donor. The beneficiaries attended a workshop with former grantees focusing on financial management and one-on-one consultations in Windhoek yesterday. The U.S. Ambassador Self-Help Programme is a grassroots assistance programme that provides financing for small community-based projects that are initiated and administered at the local level and which include contributions in cash, labour or materials from the local community and is expected to be self-sustaining. The programme has been operating in the country since 1990 and has provided nearly N$19 million in funding to community-based development projects throughout Namibia, according to a press statement from the U.S. Embassy. The projects represent a diverse range of locally generated initiatives that seek to improve social and economic conditions in the country and the grassroots organizations supported this year are established in the Zambezi, Hardap, Kavango, Ohangwena, Oshikoto and Otjozondjupa regions.
One project will improve the supply of water to the Schlip community in the Hardap Region, five others will support disadvantaged people or communities and four will address food insecurity, said U.S. Ambassador to Namibia, Wanda Nesbitt. Some of the activities include gardening, brick-making, dairy production and tailoring just to name a few. A former grantee, the Welwitchia People with Disabilities group, has trained 20 disabled men and women at Khorixas in carpentry, welding, sewing and handicrafts skills with the grant they received in 2011.
“Their success has had an impact on how people in the community view disabled people,” said Nesbitt. Nesbitt is of the opinion that the Self-Help Programme has been a success, because it empowers people and further has an effect on the long-term success of the beneficiary communities involved in the projects.
Another former grantee, Executive Director of King’s Daughters, Esme Kisting, explained that the programme assisted current and former sex workers to expand their bicycle repair business in order to generate income in Katutura. “With our small grant, we were able to triple our income-generating workspace,” she beamed, explaining that they also expanded practical job skills training for former sex workers.
In addition, King’s Daughters have used their increased profits to fund counseling, health training, support groups as well as a kiddies club for the children of members of the King’s Daughters rehabilitation programme.
Moreover, project supervisor and coordinator of the Hardap Training Centre in Rehoboth, Annaliza Goagoses, said the centre received over N$86 000 in 2012 from the programme to purchase equipment for different projects such as a dough mixer for the bakery, an industrial machine for the upholstery section, a coffee maker for the hospitality section, as well as an embroidery machine for the needlework section, among others.
According to Goagoses, the training centre provides training in basic computer literacy, office administration and typing, needlework, hospitality, as well as vocational skills training such as upholstery, dehydration of fruits and vegetables and leather works, among others. “To date over 70 percent of Rehoboth’s underprivileged population has taken part in training programmes, 60 percent has joined the labour market and 10 percent are self-employed,” she said.
By Lorraine Kazondovi