WAD’s Okakarara centre thriving

SEVEN years ago, Women’s Action for Development (WAD) and the Konrad Adenauer Stiftung started a training centre at Okakarara with a handful of Otjozondjupa Women’s Voice (WV) members.

Today, more than 700 women, as well as a few men, are acquiring skills at the WAD centre. With the increasing growth in membership, the training facilities have become too small to meet the demand from the community.As a result, the Konrad Adenauer Stiftung, the main sponsor of WAD, decided to upgrade the training centre.They bought four prefab training halls, one of which is for Okakarara.The other three will be distributed to Rehoboth, Otjinene and Okakarara.The additional buildings and furniture for these three towns cost N$300 000.Activities at the Okakarara centre include a milling project, brick making, upholstery and sewing projects, a hair salon and a bread-baking project.There is also a small computer-training programme.The centre also runs course in cooking, family planning and HIV-AIDS counselling.About 2 500 members of the Okakarara community have benefited from these training programmes.The Otjozondjupa Women’s Voice (WV) is an affiliate of WAD.Apart from skills training, WV has done a great deal for the community at Okakarara: it has cleaned the State Hospital, called attention to the shortage of space at the mortuary and put the issue of a shortage of doctors on the frontburner.The Ministry of Health and Social Welfare has now expanded the mortuary and sent additional doctors to the hospital.WV also paid the fees of children who were not allowed back to school because of outstanding school fees.At the opening of the new training hall on Thursday, Veronica de Klerk, Executive Director of WAD, said: “Although we welcome development aid, we should face the fact that any development aid is of a temporary nature aimed at helping us along while we could not yet walk upright on our own”.With the increasing growth in membership, the training facilities have become too small to meet the demand from the community. As a result, the Konrad Adenauer Stiftung, the main sponsor of WAD, decided to upgrade the training centre. They bought four prefab training halls, one of which is for Okakarara. The other three will be distributed to Rehoboth, Otjinene and Okakarara. The additional buildings and furniture for these three towns cost N$300 000. Activities at the Okakarara centre include a milling project, brick making, upholstery and sewing projects, a hair salon and a bread-baking project. There is also a small computer-training programme. The centre also runs course in cooking, family planning and HIV-AIDS counselling. About 2 500 members of the Okakarara community have benefited from these training programmes. The Otjozondjupa Women’s Voice (WV) is an affiliate of WAD. Apart from skills training, WV has done a great deal for the community at Okakarara: it has cleaned the State Hospital, called attention to the shortage of space at the mortuary and put the issue of a shortage of doctors on the frontburner. The Ministry of Health and Social Welfare has now expanded the mortuary and sent additional doctors to the hospital. WV also paid the fees of children who were not allowed back to school because of outstanding school fees. At the opening of the new training hall on Thursday, Veronica de Klerk, Executive Director of WAD, said: “Although we welcome development aid, we should face the fact that any development aid is of a temporary nature aimed at helping us along while we could not yet walk upright on our own”.