By Benjamin Wickham
EDINBURGH, March 16 — A Scottish charity called Diamonds in the Community is preparing for its biggest project ever. Volunteers from the charity will be travelling to Namibia to work on six different community projects. The projects range from repairing a school to introducing walking football.
The group will spend two weeks travelling across the 2000-kilometre Namib desert with their hosts from the Topnaar tribe and communities to support a range of local priorities. All the participants are funding their own travel, and they are currently busy fundraising to help towards the work being done during the trip. An online donations page has so far collected £1800 of their £5000 target.
The projects that the volunteers will be working on include helping to improve a 262-pupil primary school in the desert of the Namib Naukluft park. The school is located 50 kilometres from the coastal city of Walvis Bay. Staff and community members are fundraising for much-needed upgrades to the “dilapidated” 44-year-old building and to build a roof to finish a much-needed school dormitory, with the aim of enabling more children to stay in education. The Diamonds volunteers have also set up links with six Lanarkshire schools, whose pupils are creating books of pictures and stories depicting Scottish life to be given to the JP Brand youngsters – who will in turn make a similar book showing life for Namibian children.
Another project will see the volunteers share best practices from their running of Monklands baby bank initiative, visiting Namibian organisations to donate items and setting up ongoing links to share information and ideas; as well as distributing hundreds of items of sanitary products and underwear to help address period poverty – a major issue which causes one in 10 girls in Africa to miss school.
Diamonds in the Community will also be taking out hundreds of items of sports equipment, as part of their long-standing partnership with Kit Aid, and will hand over football shirts, shorts and socks, boots, tracksuits and training equipment. These items will be used for sports, health education, sports participation, and crime prevention. Finally, the group from the Airdrie-based charity will be introducing walking football through a mini-tournament with the Topnaar tribe on a sand pitch in the Namib desert, which will honour the memory of the late tribe chief Kootcjie.
Charity development manager Douglas Allsop described the trip as “three years in the making” after their previous international travel attempts were postponed due to the Covid pandemic. The intrepid adventure is the group’s second trip to one of the world’s least-populated places. It was set up by adventure expedition organiser and friend of the charity David Scott, who is the UK’s honorary consul to Mongolia and who arranged the Airdrie group’s trips to Mongolia in 2015 and 2019 where they built huts, provided medical supplies and played football in the desert.
There are 20 volunteers going on the trip, of all ages and backgrounds, including grandparents and a mum and daughter. The group is made up of trustees, board members and supporters of the Diamonds in the Community charity, which is based in Airdrie, Scotland. They will be joined by their hosts from the Topnaar tribe and communities across Namibia.
The project has been in the making for three years, and the volunteers are excited to finally be embarking on this journey. They will be working on a variety of projects, ranging from education to sports and health initiatives.
One of the main projects will involve helping to improve a primary school located in the desert of the Namib Naukluft park. The school is in need of upgrades to its 44-year-old building and the construction of a roof to finish a school dormitory. The Diamonds volunteers will be working alongside staff and community members to make these improvements and to enable more children to stay in education.
In addition to the school project, the Diamonds in the Community charity will also be sharing best practices from their running of the Monklands baby bank initiative. They will be donating items to Namibian organizations and setting up ongoing links to share information and ideas. They will also be distributing hundreds of items of sanitary products and underwear to help address period poverty.
The charity will be taking out hundreds of items of sports equipment as part of its partnership with Kit Aid. They will hand over football shirts, shorts, socks, boots, tracksuits, and training equipment to be used for sports, health education, sports participation, and crime prevention. Finally, the group will be introducing walking football through a mini-tournament with the Topnaar tribe on a sand pitch in the Namib desert to honour the memory of the late tribe chief Kootcjie.
The volunteers are funding their own travel and are currently fundraising to help towards the work being done during the trip. An online donations page has already collected £1800 of their £5000 target.
This trip is the group’s second journey to one of the world’s least-populated places. The charity’s previous international travel attempts were postponed due to the Covid pandemic. The 20 volunteers going on the trip come from all ages and backgrounds, including grandparents and a mother and daughter.
Overall, the Diamonds in the Community charity’s trip to Namibia will be an incredible opportunity to make a positive impact on the lives of many Namibians. The projects they are working on will provide much-needed support to the local communities and enable more children to receive an education. It is an adventure that the volunteers will never forget. – Namibia Daily News
