Big Stipends Transform Settlement

Posted to the web 6 October 2008 Wezi Tjaronda Windhoek The N$100 monthly grant to residents of the Otjivero settlement in Omitara area has turned their misfortunes into a better life. Resident in an area with rampant crime, unemployment, poverty and hunger, the people of Otjvero can now feed their children and send them to school, earn money from small enterprises, access the clinic easily and also be financially independent. Before the grant, Otjivero was known as the hotbed of criminality and a place for lazy people, drunkards and outcasts of society, according to Evangelical Lutheran Church in the Republic of Namibia (ELCRN) Bishop Ze-phania Kameeta. An assessment done six months after the implementation of the pilot project to give N$100 to the residents of the settlement found that malnutrition among children under the... [read full story]