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Namibia: Sponsors to Give Up Crafts Project
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The Namibian (Windhoek)
21 May 2008
Posted to the web 21 May 2008
Luqman Cloete
Windhoek
THE sustainability of a Keetmanshoop project run by people infected and affected by HIV-AIDS will hang in the balance when its current donors pull out at the end of this year.
The Czech Development Aid Project had been funding the PIN community centre since 2004 and had injected an estimated N$1,7 million.
The PIN community centre was run from the old municipal beer garden in the poorest township of Tseiblaagte at Keetmanshoop.
It provides jobs to women affected and infected with HIV-AIDS.
Women involved in the venture produce handmade arts and crafts.
Their activities include sewing, embroidery and production of ornaments and jewellery.
The majority of the products are sold at the Namibia Craft Centre in Windhoek, and some are marketed in the Czech Republic.
Profits from the handicrafts are paid to the 40 women as a weekly wage, while a portion is used to cover the running costs of the centre.
In 2007, the community centre made a profit of N$530 000.
The bulk of its sales - 63 per cent - were made in the Czech Republic and the remaining 37 per cent in Namibia.
In 2006 the earnings from the sales covered one third of the production costs and in 2007 it jumped to two thirds.
The PIN project activities also include psychosocial support for the community as well as a day-care centre for the children of the women involved in the project.
The head of the centre, Dragmar Fauskovo, said some women had been empowered with financial and marketing skills to secure the project's sustainability in future.
"We want the beneficiaries to take ownership of the centre," Fauskovo said.
Though Fauskovo was confident that the women could run the community centre on their own without sponsorship, she expressed concern over the project's sustainability in future.
"At least for one year the women will need a small grant to cement the sustainability for the years ahead," she said.
She urged the public to help the project become sustainable by buying handicrafts produced at the centre, adding that any funding was most welcome.
"The people involved have mastered the production and quality aspects," she said.
Neatly dressed in a handmade outfit, Sylvia Haubas, who works as supervisor, said the project had changed her life for the better.
"I used to drink alcohol from sunset until late night because of unemployment frustrations," Haubas said.
"I used to live in a ghetto [shack] but since I started working at the community centre I could afford to acquire a decent house for myself and my four kids with the fortnightly wages I am earning from the handicraft sales," Haubas said with a broad smile.
Haubas urged the Namibian Government to assist the project, saying: "I am confident that we will keep the community centre running, but Government's assistance for at least a year will definitely ensure a long existence for the community centre."
Another participant, Elizabeth Eiman, said she had learnt a lot since her involvement in the project since its inception.
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"I've learnt how counsel street kids, and learnt a lot about HIV-AIDS," Eiman said.
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