Food bank discussed for Otjozondjupa
The political leadership of the Otjozondjupa Region and poverty minister Zephania Kameeta last week discussed plans of rolling out the government's food bank programme to the region.
Kameeta at the meeting in Otjiwarongo said Otjozondjupa and Erongo are the only two regions still left behind in establishing their regional food bank committees expected to manage the programme's regional activities.
The meeting was chaired by Otjozondjupa's governor Otto Ipinge and in attendance were the regional and local authority councillors of Okahandja, Okakarara, Otjiwarongo, Otavi and Grootfontein.
It set a deadline of June 2019 in establishing the committee in the region.
Kameeta also presented the steps that need to be followed in setting up this regional committee.
The minister said the committee members will receive training on how to identify households in the urban and peri-urban areas to benefit from the programme.
“The food bank is not for everyone, but for the most needy people in the urban and peri-urban areas since the drought relief and other government programmes are also targeting people in rural areas,” he said.
The regional political representatives in the meeting agreed to implement the programme in Otjiwarongo and Okahandja.
The meeting urged other local authority leaders to initiate their own community vegetable garden projects to be supported by the ministry.
It was also agreed that a total of 14 unemployed community members - seven in Otjiwarongo and seven from Okahandja should be identified as street committee members who will receive training on how to identify the beneficiaries and conduct the actual distribution of the food parcels.
Food bank consultant, retired Cuban ambassador to Namibia Angel Dalmau Fernandez is expected to train these street committee members.
The ministry has a duty of ensuring that poverty and hunger are eradicated in the country through government social grants, rolling out of the food bank activities and also through a funeral insurance existing in the ministry since 2001 for pensioners receiving monthly social grants, said Kameeta.
The food bank was first launched by President Hage Geingob in the capital in June 2016, which was later followed with the distribution of food parcels to some identified households in the Khomas Region.
NAMPA
Kameeta at the meeting in Otjiwarongo said Otjozondjupa and Erongo are the only two regions still left behind in establishing their regional food bank committees expected to manage the programme's regional activities.
The meeting was chaired by Otjozondjupa's governor Otto Ipinge and in attendance were the regional and local authority councillors of Okahandja, Okakarara, Otjiwarongo, Otavi and Grootfontein.
It set a deadline of June 2019 in establishing the committee in the region.
Kameeta also presented the steps that need to be followed in setting up this regional committee.
The minister said the committee members will receive training on how to identify households in the urban and peri-urban areas to benefit from the programme.
“The food bank is not for everyone, but for the most needy people in the urban and peri-urban areas since the drought relief and other government programmes are also targeting people in rural areas,” he said.
The regional political representatives in the meeting agreed to implement the programme in Otjiwarongo and Okahandja.
The meeting urged other local authority leaders to initiate their own community vegetable garden projects to be supported by the ministry.
It was also agreed that a total of 14 unemployed community members - seven in Otjiwarongo and seven from Okahandja should be identified as street committee members who will receive training on how to identify the beneficiaries and conduct the actual distribution of the food parcels.
Food bank consultant, retired Cuban ambassador to Namibia Angel Dalmau Fernandez is expected to train these street committee members.
The ministry has a duty of ensuring that poverty and hunger are eradicated in the country through government social grants, rolling out of the food bank activities and also through a funeral insurance existing in the ministry since 2001 for pensioners receiving monthly social grants, said Kameeta.
The food bank was first launched by President Hage Geingob in the capital in June 2016, which was later followed with the distribution of food parcels to some identified households in the Khomas Region.
NAMPA
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