Life-changing: Electricity makes all the difference

Fikile Simposi from Swakopmund and her family will never forget the day she was told she would receive electricity from the Towards an Inclusive Design of the Renewable Energy Transition (TIDRET) project.According to the Environmental Investment Fund of Namibia (EIF), this life-changing event brought unending joy to the community, but also to her family of two.The EIF said until recently, Simposi was an unemployed housewife, but she will be starting a new job soon.“God has not forgotten me. I have been staying in the Shack Dwellers Federation’s house without electricity for two years now, but now we have electricity. And I start a new job in the coming days. No words can explain the joy in my heart,” she said.'My hands can rest now'Days and nights were long without electricity, she said.According to the EIF, Simposi's family would use other people's fridges to store meat, while something as simple as charging a cellphone or doing laundry also meant reaching out to neighbours and friends.And this did not come cheap.According to Simposi, she would pay N$100 for a load of laundry and N$2 to charge her phone, which has a battery life of about two to three days before needing to recharge.“I am extremely happy that I can now use my fridge for my meat, do my laundry and charge my phone. I can now say that I have everything at home.”Before electricity, when her house ran out of gas, they had to make a fire outside, she said.“In Swakopmund, it is hard because firewood is hard to come by, so we had to opt for pallets, but that was a struggle. Or we needed to fork out more money to buy wood,” Simposi said.Moreover, acquiring matches could take days.“Now it's just a flip of a switch, and then there is light. Gone are the days I did laundry with my hands, which left me with blisters and bleeding hands. My hands can rest now.” Be patientSimposi said they are equally excited for the next batch of people to receive electricity.She urged them not to give up hope and reminded them of how long they waited for these houses.“We waited for 17 years for these houses until we finally got them. Just be patient. It will come.“To the partners who made this possible, thank you for all your efforts, and thank you to Erongo Red that allowed the TIDRET project to put in electricity for us.”Helping handsThe TIDRET project is an initiative led by EIF under the Climate Change and Inclusive Use of Natural Resources Project (CCIU-EU) of the environment ministry, administered through the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ).The key objectives of the project are to facilitate the formulation of evidence-based, gender-sensitive nationally determined contribution projects and business models for climate action and, subsequently, to facilitate public and private sector stakeholder dialogues to support investment in climate action on various platforms.The project aims to promote solar electrification in three designated business sectors that are legally recognised under Namibian law.

Life-changing: Electricity makes all the difference

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Namibian Sun 2025-11-05

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Life-changing: Electricity makes all the difference

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Namibian Sun 2025-11-05

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