Welfare organisation keeping children off the streets

WINDHOEK, 04 JULY – The Tov HIV/AIDS Orphans and Vulnerable Children Organisation has scored great success in a variety of its programmes, mainly aimed at rehabilitating young children through continuous mentoring and care.
The Tsumeb-based welfare organisation, in its quarterly report issued to the media on Tuesday, stated that 65 boys and girls are housed at its community centre, who are put through both primary and secondary school.
The report noted that most children come from either broken families or those unable to support children, especially in the town’s informal settlements.
“I made a commitment 17 years ago that I will remove every condom from the hands of girls in my community and remove every knife from the hands of the boys in my community. I vowed to replace the condoms and knives with pens, books and a spoon in their hands,” Reverend Edward Amadhila, Tov Technical Adviser said in the report.
He said the children appear to be heeding his message as most have done well in their school and scored good grades.
“We last month invited Dr Phyllis Mary Yesudas, the principal of St Boniface College which is the best private school in the country to come and encourage them and it is paying off,” he noted.
To sustain the children, including two babies that the organisation took in after they were abandoned by their mothers; it operates a chicken project and a crop production facility.
It has on its books 150 chickens which lay eggs that the organisation sells at a profit and also use to feed the children.
The organisation plans to increase the number of laying chickens to 2 000 within the next 18 months.
They also grow spinach to complement the children’s diet, whilst intending to sell part of the produce in future to sustain its activities and programmes.
“The idea is that the community buys from us; in this way we will become self-sustainable. Or you can buy from us and we will give to school feeding schemes in and around Tsumeb,” said Amadhila.
The organisation also called on the corporate world to come to its aid through sponsorships and donations, to allow it to take in more children.
Alternatively, Amadhila said, companies and individuals can assist in the upgrading of the organisation’s income generation projects such as the chicken farm.
“We need some 300 bags of cement to start making bricks for the chicken coop. We need to fence off some part of the farm. We also urgently need to put shade netting on the eight greenhouses. We need a solar home system for our farmhouse as there is no electricity and it is important for communication purposes to have electricity,” he said.
NAMPA