Friends of Namibia

AGM - new committee elected

VSO in Namibia

Carole Milner, Head of the Returned Volunteer Programme for VSO (Voluntary Service Overseas) addressed the AGM and circulated a range of publications and fact sheets covering VSO’s work in Namibia/Southern Africa. She explained that VSO volunteers are now recruited not only in the UK but also from developing countries and there are a number of South–South linking programmes. The trend in the UK in recent years has been to recruit more mature and retired professional people who have skills and experience to offer.

Currently there are 1,600 serving volunteers in 40 countries, and 30,000 returned volunteers, 17,000 of whom are registered on a database. The VSO programme in Namibia started in 1991 and the organisation has been able to keep track of 318 of these. In 2003 there were 63 VSOs working in the country in fields such as health and education. The Namibia country programme is very much focused on supporting the HIV/AIDS disability initiative and Carole explained one area where she saw scope for collaboration was in support of the Regional Aids Initiative of Southern Africa (RAISA), for which current funding, unfortunately, ends in March 2004. She also highlighted VSO’s role in the DFID Global School Partnership scheme, which is to set up a global educators’ register and make it available across the UK so schools can make contact with one another.

Carole asked for Friends of Namibia's help in response to a request received from a volunteer teacher in Namibia who would like to make links with two schools in UK so children can exchange letters, information and experience. Similar links between other sectors have proved very successful and of mutual benefit to both partners and she read a very moving correspondence between young people on probation in Namibia and the UK which had resulted in great personal growth and development.

New subscription rates

An increase in the annual subscription rates to Friends of Namibia was approved by the AGM. The membership subscription has not in fact increased since the society was set up in 1997 and we now have increased annual costs in connection with the website and mailings, as well as other requests for funds. Following some discussion it was agreed that there should be 4 rates applied from January 2004, as follows:

• Companies - £25
• NGOs/charitable organisations/church groups/civic associations - £15
• Individuals - £8
• Student/concessionary rate - £5

Ed Morrow memorial fund

Following the sad death of Revd Canon Ed Morrow last year, a memorial fund was set up in his memory for the Anglican Diocese of Namibia Aids Programme. The collection, which was channelled through the Friends of Namibia Society, has raised the sum of approximately £3,080 (36,000 Namibian dollars). Thank you to all those who contributed so generously. The funds are being transferred to Namibia and will be used to purchase equipment, including beds, mattresses, and medical equipment, for the Terminal Care Unit at St. Mary's Health Centre, Odibo. This unit is mainly occupied by those with HIV/AIDS related illnesses. The staff employed by the Health Centre extend their care to those in the Terminal Care Unit on a voluntary basis.

Commonwealth Youth Summit - Edinburgh

Namibia was represented at the first Commonwealth Youth Summit, held in Edinburgh from 26 October to 8 November 2003, by two members of the national executive committee of NANSO (Namibia National Students Organisation). Secretary General Naville Andre and Secretary for Tertiary Education, Perpetua Ekongo, joined delegates from forty-seven other Commonwealth countries to discuss recommendations to be put forward to the 15th Conference of Commonwealth Education Ministers. The themes of the summit were: closing the gap, access, inclusion, and achievement. As a result of discussions during the first week, the summit came up with six issues in particular which delegates felt strongly should be included in the ministers’ conference together with recommendations on how progress could be achieved. The six main concerns were:

1. The development of more adequate provision and access for young people with physical and emotional special needs.
2. Achievement of greater access to open and distance learning infrastructure and resources.
3. Improvement in the quality of education by improving standards in teacher training.
4. Recognition of the crisis that HIV/AIDS presents and urgent improvement of education on this issue.
5. The need to raise the profile and benefits of universal primary education.
6. The elimination of gender disparities and the need for policies and strategies to ensure both boys and girls are motivated to achieve their full potential in their chosen fields.

During the second week of their visit the delegates participated in local programmes including staying in local homes and visiting educational establishments and social/cultural activities with young people in Britain.

The above précis is taken from Naville Andre’s report. If anyone would like a full copy of his report, please contact Margaret Lipscomb.

Chesterfield-Tsumeb Link - 10th Anniversary visit

Chesterfield has been twinned with Tsumeb since 1993, and to mark this anniversary a small civic delegation spent a week there. Led by the Mayor, Councillor June Beckingham, the group included two other councillors, the Twinning Officer, Mary Stead, and a representative of the African Caribbean Community Association, Uriah Saunders. All delegates are working actively in support of the link through membership of the Chesterfield Tsumeb Association, the community-based link support organisation.

The visit included meetings with Tsumeb Municipal Council and attendance at an evening Council Meeting (which was surprisingly similar to council meetings in Chesterfield). The delegates also took the opportunity to follow up established contacts, and to try to develop new ones.

They visited the Okapana Market in Nomtsoub (Tsumeb's former black township) to see the progress made since council staff had worked together on a capacity-building project to develop the market, funded by the Commonwealth Local Government Forum. There they met Tulongeni Pamwe, the community-based organisation now running the market.

A visit to the Old Age Home followed, to meet representatives of Tsumeb's churches, and to meet some of the elderly people supported by sponsorship from Chesterfield churches.

Tsumeb Cultural Village, Tsumeb Museum, Tsumeb Arts and Crafts Centre and Otjikoto Lake were the four tourist attractions visited, because Tsumeb is keen to promote itself as a tourist destination both for Namibian and overseas visitors.

There is an SOS Children's Village in Tsumeb, and this too receives some sponsorship from Chesterfield. Young people in Tsumeb have received donations from a Rotary Club in Chesterfield, towards the cost of establishing a much-needed youth centre. A visit to this centre confirmed that much progress had been made in a very short time, by a committee of young people, with support from the municipality.

Other meetings, with the Chamber of Commerce and the Ongopolo Mining Company, explored ways to develop commercial links between Tsumeb and Chesterfield, and made it easier to understand the efforts being made in Tsumeb to diversify and develop the local economy.

A very productive meeting with teachers took place at the Tsumeb Teachers' Resource Centre. Visits to four schools, Etosha, Tsumeb and Otjikoto secondary schools, and Francis Galton primary schools explored the problems and possibilities of school linking. A further educational visit was made to the Ombili foundation, which provides education for San children, and contact was also made with a new kindergarten for children mainly of San origin near Tsumeb.

There was also a meeting with medical staff from Tsumeb's state hospital, because there is a strong interest in Chesterfield in trying to make direct links between doctors, to exchange ideas and information.

A cheque from Soroptimists and a training manual from North Derbyshire Women's Aid was handed to staff and volunteers from the Tsumeb Women and Children's Centre, and ways to develop this women's link were discussed.

Land reform was discussed with a local official, and a meeting was held with trade unionists from MUN, NAPWU, NUNW and the agricultural workers' union, to explore current issues and discuss future links.

The visit ended with a meeting with some of the Tsumeb scouts, who have a link with scouts in Chesterfield, and with members of the Baha'i community, who also maintain a correspondence link with co-religionists in Chesterfield.

It is hoped that this visit will provide the information and ideas needed to carry the link forward. Civic visits are rare (the only other one was in 1993, to sign the twinning agreement) but whenever possible, people from Chesterfield visit Tsumeb while on private visits to Namibia. Visitors from Tsumeb occasionally come to Chesterfield, usually on their way to Tsumeb's other partner towns, in Norway and Canada.

The delegates were all impressed by the kindness and hospitality of their Namibian hosts, and by the beauty of the town itself, where the jacaranda trees were just coming into bloom. The welcome given to the Afro-Caribbean delegate was particularly warm.

Now the delegation must communicate their enthusiasm for the link to people in Chesterfield, because a lot has been achieved in ten years, but this is only the beginning of a community-based link with so much potential.

Mary Stead

A beekeeper in Namibia

Honey-hunting has been carried out by all Namibian communities for many generations, but at the time of independence there was no real culture of beekeeping as such in the country. Some of the honey-hunting methods were in fact having negative affects on the environment, as trees were often cut down to gain access to colonies, and fires were started to subdue and smoke out the bees, often resulting in forest fires - both of which activities contributed to deforestation in Namibia which can ill afford to lose its trees. A Beekeeping Development Programme was therefore set up as part of a Forestry Research Programme and VSO was asked to recruit a beekeeping officer to work within the Forestry Directorate to assist in addressing some of these problems. Derek Sherratt from Chesterfield, whose own account of his visit follows, was recruited in 1994 to fill this post for 2 years. An additional aim of the project was to assist farmers in rural communities become more self-sufficient for, if beekeeping could be introduced successfully, it could provide people with both a supplementary diet and/or increased income, and would also be beneficial for other agriculture as the bees would help pollinate the crops.

On Derek's arrival a research programme was developed concentrating on the north of the country where the vegetation was thought most suitable for bees and, following a tour of the area, it was decided to set up apiaries for demonstration purposes. It was clear from the beginning that a low cost, low technology beehive would be necessary to serve the needs of the various communities within Namibia and to make maximum use of local easily available materials and community skills. Derek's final report includes very practical information on building hives making use of clay, concrete, and calabashes, as well as wood - depending on what is regionally available and familiar to the local community. The report also includes information on trees most likely to attract bees, advice on collecting swarms and colonies, simple bee biology and behaviour, honey and wax production, the practical problems of establishing the demonstration apiaries, and recommendations on future research and development. A National Beekeeping Centre was established at Hamoye for training purposes and bee-breeding, but it was concluded that NGO sites and individual community members were the best venues for beekeeping and honey production. Derek continues to take a keen interest in beekeeping in Namibia and assists with local projects on his regular return visits to Namibia.

I never thought it would lead to this

As a horticulturist I thought what a good idea it would be to keep bees to pollinate my fruit trees and get another crop. Very soon the hobby became a passion and I took several exams in beekeeping.

At the national honey show in London in 1993, I became a member of Beekeeping and Development. Dr Nicola Bradbear, the founder of the organisation, pointed out to me an advert on the back page of my first magazine, it said ‘Beekeeping officer required to carry out a feasibility study of beekeeping in Namibia with VSO serving overseas’. I smiled and casually put the magazine in my bag. My friend Hilary Abbey had recently had a wonderful experience as a VSO in Zimbabwe, so I knew a little about the work a VSO did.

On the journey back to my hometown Chesterfield I discussed with my fellow beekeeper and friend Anne Gibson how ironical it was to come across this opportunity. I was interested in VSO and work in developing countries. My current job working for social services had become very stressful and I was looking for a fresh challenge, and here was a job involving beekeeping and development; I commented to Anne that it seemed the job was meant for me.

The following day I sent for an application form, and was so excited at the prospect. Can you imagine the joy several months later, after two interviews and agreement from Derbyshire County Council to give me 2 years leave of absence, to hear that I had been selected?

On 4 June 1994 I flew out from Heathrow together with another new VSO, Nick Coughlin, a furniture designer who later became a close personal friend. Amid the excitement of the occasion, pangs of fear entered my thoughts "could I cope with the changes, would I be out of my depth?” After all here I was 47 years old and my only experience of being abroad were holidays to Cyprus and Rhodes. Two years to be away from friends and everything that felt comfortable and familiar seemed an awful long time. Could I cope with the heat, would I become ill or get stung to death by bees? - after all, people had been saying how different the African bee would be. "Killer Bees" was often the reference they made. My friend Nick brought me back to reality. "Chill out Derek" he said reassuringly. Later I realised this was one of Nick’s favourite sayings, we laughed and asked the air hostess for another beer. We arrived in Namibia’s capital Windhoek at 7.30 a.m. Walking down the steps from the plane the heat met us even this early in the morning. The open space’s wall-to-wall sunshine and the sense of relief that we had arrived has been a lasting memory for me ever since.

The rest they say is history. All my varied experiences would result in a book rather than a short story.

Chesterfield, my hometown, had recently become twinned with Tsumeb and had asked me to represent them while I was there. The Mayors of the two towns during that period were Morgan Smit and Meme Susan Ndingwa and we held early discussions on how to set up the first old people’s home available to black Namibian residents of Tsumeb.

I soon found many white people who kept bees across many areas so it was reasonable to assume a level of feasibility to beekeeping in these areas. Many of the crops grown around Tsumeb would require bees in large quantities to enable them to reach their maximum crop yield, however there was little awareness of this amongst the farming population, white or black.

In Grootfontein I lived in an isolated house on the outskirts of the town and one evening I returned home to find I had been relieved of all my possessions. Even the potatoes and soap had gone. All that was left was my employer’s laptop computer, which obviously was of no use to them. At least I had some empathy with the thieves over the use of the computer. It was a lonely frightening night sleeping next to the window which the thieves had smashed in order to enter the house. Later I moved to a house in Tutengeni in Rundu and shared it with Keiron, another VSO who was making low technology water pumps. Apart form work which took me all around Northern Namibia I had some wonderful idyllic evenings sitting alongside the Okavango river which formed the border with Angola. The occasional crocodile was seen and we watched several sunsets while Angolans tended their cattle on the other side of the river.

Another event in 1995 was to change the course of my life. In my efforts to introduce bee keeping to Namibia, I was looking for ways of making a low cost bee suit. About 18 km from Ondangwa in the north grows a belt of Makalani Palm trees possibly about two miles wide. The ground conditions there must be ideal for their growth. The local subsistence farmers make extra income from making hats and baskets from the palm. I pulled up beside a dead branch that had been planted in the ground in order to hang baskets on to display them. I asked the young women present if they would make me some hats with an extra wide brim, I needed this in order to drape mosquito netting over to keep out the bees. The woman, who took the lead in my discussion, said she would need to discuss them with her mother to fix a cost etc and I was invited into the homestead. I felt very privileged to meet such warm and friendly people despite their persecution at the hands of the "white” occupying forces only a few years earlier. The family is called Namugongo and Saima the spokesperson became a valued friend. Each time I visited she learnt more English and had prepared certain sentences to say. Months later I was asked by the Forestry Department to arrange for basket makers to demonstrate their craft at Windhoek Agricultural show. I invited the Namugonos to the show and Margaret the mother said it would be Saima and herself who would attend. Spending more time with Saima cemented our relationship and we had a great time on the fair ground and at the fire work display.

After my return to England in 1996 I really missed Namibia and my friends, Saima in particular who despite only having basic education was vibrant and positive in whatever she did. Her Christian upbringing gave her the honesty and kindness and faith in people which is the hallmark of her personality. I decided to invite Saima for a holiday in 1997 and after her 4 months visit I proposed to her and we married on 18 July 1998. We now have a house in both twin towns and are active members of the twinning link as well as members of Friends of Namibia. We welcome visitors to our home in Tsumeb, which is looked after by Nangula, Saima’s sister and Naukale, her niece.

All this just because I started beekeeping.

Derek Sherratt

In memoriam - Bishop Jim Thompson

It is with great sadness that we noted the death in September 2003 of Bishop Jim Thompson, a founder member of the Friends of Namibia Society and long-term friend of the country. When Jim became Bishop of Stepney in the late 1970s (taking over the diocese from Trevor Huddlestone) he became a friend and supporter of Bishop Colin Winter, the exiled Anglican Bishop of Namibia, whose centre for Namibian students and political exiles was based in the East End of London. After Colin Winter's death, Bishop Jim chaired a committee to support the centre and donated his fees from broadcasts, such as 'Thought for the Day', towards the upkeep of the house. He linked the Stepney Diocese to the Anglican Diocese of Namibia and in 1983 was part of a delegation sent by the Archbishop of Canterbury, in response to an invitation from James Kauluma, then Bishop of Namibia, to visit the country which was then still under South African occupation. The delegation was to pay a pastoral visit meeting with Christians of all denominations and a wide cross section of the population with the remit 'to look, learn and listen' and report back to the Archbishops of Canterbury and Cape Town. They spent some time in the war zone and while there Bishop Jim was taken ill with a fever and spent some time recuperating in a mission hospital. The report highlighted the deprivation of human rights among the black Namibian population and urged the world-wide church to publicly declare the illegality of the South African occupation and to work towards a just peace and independence for Namibia.

On becoming Bishop of Bath and Wells, Jim Thompson's African connections shifted more to Zambia with which that diocese was linked, but his interest and concern for Namibia continued and he was one of the founding members of the Friends of Namibia Society. We extend our sympathy and condolences to Sally, his widow, and their family.

Newsletter

Unfortunately, due to pressure of work, Ryn Brandse had to withdraw as editor/compiler of the newsletter following the September 2003 issue. We thank Ryn for getting the newsletter onto a regular footing last year - and apologise for the lateness of this particular issue which shows what happens when there is no editor at the helm. We are hopeful of being able to announce a replacement soon, but there is always a need for copy, so please do send on any items you think may be of interest to other Friends of Namibia. If you would like to continue to receive a newsletter, please consider writing something for it.