Cash for drought victims | New Era Newspaper Namibia

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Cash for drought victims

Features National 4 hours ago

as deadly drought tightens its grip

As the unrelenting drought stalks Namibia about 900 000 people are reported to be affected across the country. In the north people have already started eating next years seeds meant for planting.

WINDHOEK Namibias worst drought in decades has prompted the Secretary General of the Lutheran World Federation (LWF) Martin Jonge to initiate an N$100 short-term grant for 4 000 drought affected people. The LWF-initiated short-term income grant of N$100 to 4000 individuals will also be bankrolled by a communion of churches worldwide that have been touched by the magnitude of the drought that has affected at least 900 000 people countrywide. The cash will be disbursed from mid-September 2013 until March 2014 before the next crop harvest. The latest in a raft of short-term drought relief measures was triggered by reports on the drought that circulated on the Internet over the last three months. Jonge announced the grant yesterday. Outgoing Bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Namibia, Bishop Zephania Kameeta, said a team did a pre-assessment throughout the country in June to assess the situation. After the assessment it was found that people in the country are really threatened by hunger and starvation and that livestock are

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dying. Churches decided they want to complement governments efforts by giving cash to selected communities to get over the drought, said Kameeta. We have selected four communities, one in each of the hardest hit regions such as Hardap, Kunene, Omusati and Kavango where we targeted about 4 000 people in villages to receive N$100 for the next four to six months. We found that the community in Omusati is especially hard hit with the flood of two years ago, and the community in Kunene has not received any rain and is going through the first spell of drought, explained Kameeta. Pastor Claudia Haarmenn said people already receiving government grants like pensioners, orphans and persons earning above a taxable income of N$4 200 will be excluded from the latest initiative. We are currently in the process of registering people in these communities together with NamPost. With the money people can buy in addition to the maize meal they receive other food, or fodder for the animals, said Haarmenn. She said throughout the assessment and the registration process, people really came across as desperate and some people in the north have already started eating their seeds for next year. Even if the rain comes they dont have anything to plant in their fields, she said. In addition to the cash response churches will offer training programmes and other support where pastors will go into the communities to support those who have lost livestock and are hungry. This is an international effort of the Lutheran World Federation together with the three Lutheran churches in Namibia, she further said. Kameeta said it is not just a matter of hunger alone but of disease also. People are hungry and easily catch diseases. It is also a question of education where children do not attend school on an empty stomach. It is such a frightening situation. If we do not get any rain the number of affected people will rise, he said. Latest figures from the Namibia Red Cross Federation showed nearly 900 000 are affected. Its a huge catastrophe and very frightening. As the months go by without rain perhaps more then half of the population of Namibia will be facing starvation towards the end of the year, lamented the concerned Kameeta. Speaking at the same occasion Bishop Toms Ndawanapo from Angola said in the southern part of his country provinces such as Namibe and Cunene are the hardest hit by the current drought. It is quite moving. People and cattle are dying, he revealed. He said 29 out of the 59 congregations in the provinces are in dire need of food assistance. He could however not say how many people are affected but stressed that people and animals are dying.

Meanwhile, the European Commissions Humanitarian Aid and Civil Protection Department (ECHO) is providing EUR 300 000 through the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) to support the

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Namibian Red Cross Society to implement a drought response. The main objective of this action, entitled Humanitarian Assistance to drought affected communities in Namibia will be to contribute to the health and wellbeing of the most vulnerable, food insecure population in Namibia and will mainly include the provision of short-term food security support to 2 000 individuals, it was announced yesterday. The implementation period will run for six months as from yesterday in the Kavango, Ohangwena, Oshikoto and Kunene Regions. The Namibia Red Cross implements a soup kitchen programme which targets the most vulnerable population groups in need of humanitarian assistance, such as children, pregnant women, the elderly and disabled. The soup kitchens are planned to be set up at suitable locations identified by the Namibia Red Cross in consultation with local authorities. ECHO support aims to scale up this programme in order to reach more individuals and therefore links into a wider humanitarian nutrition intervention. The indirect beneficiaries of ECHO support are the volunteers who will be trained on food security and programme management as part of this ECHO funded action. This support comes in addition to an ongoing ECHO contract with the Spanish and Namibian Red Cross of EUR 410 000 aiming at supporting the disaster preparedness of communities and the coordination in the sector.

By Fifi Rhodes

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