Soup kitchen gets a new home

“IT is happening, we are finally moving into our own beautiful place,” said an ecstatic Meme Hilaria, leading a group of singing and dancing women and children in a colourful procession through the Okahandja Park informal settlement to a newly completed soup kitchen.

The women, who are all community volunteers at the Child Hope Initiative project, were carrying the soup kitchen’s belongings from the shack to the new building. After two years of frustration and tears, the Okahandja Park Soup Kitchen in Windhoek is finished and the people have moved into the building.Negotiations for the construction of a proper building in the informal settlement started in December 2003 with the German organisation Hand in Hand fuer Kinder.The money was made available almost immediately and then the project’s problems with the City of Windhoek started.Negotiations over the piece of land dragged on as the application was sent from one official to the next.Eventually, the land was bought.The next hurdle was the relocation of people who were living on the land.This took another couple of months.When construction finally started, the problems were far from over – the project was further delayed when one of the builders was stabbed.The Child Hope Initiative soup kitchen will provide a meal to about 300 children on a daily basis.Before moving to the new building, the soup kitchen was run from a shack housing a kindergarten, and the children only received a meal three times a week.The building will also double as a playgroup centre and a facility were other welfare organisations can meet.After two years of frustration and tears, the Okahandja Park Soup Kitchen in Windhoek is finished and the people have moved into the building.Negotiations for the construction of a proper building in the informal settlement started in December 2003 with the German organisation Hand in Hand fuer Kinder.The money was made available almost immediately and then the project’s problems with the City of Windhoek started.Negotiations over the piece of land dragged on as the application was sent from one official to the next.Eventually, the land was bought.The next hurdle was the relocation of people who were living on the land.This took another couple of months.When construction finally started, the problems were far from over – the project was further delayed when one of the builders was stabbed.The Child Hope Initiative soup kitchen will provide a meal to about 300 children on a daily basis.Before moving to the new building, the soup kitchen was run from a shack housing a kindergarten, and the children only received a meal three times a week.The building will also double as a playgroup centre and a facility were other welfare organisations can meet.