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Poverty eradication through community driven housing
RMB and partners reaffirm support to Shack Dwellers Federation of Namibia
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The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted and exacerbated the plight of most Namibians, who were left penniless and in many cases without a roof over their heads – some because their landlords evicted them, some because they could no longer pay their home loan instalments and many – because they had no proper roof to begin with.
Assisting fellow Namibians and lending a helping hand – especially with a home to call your own - became even more important in 2020 and Ohorongo Cement, RMB through the FirstRand Namibia Foundation and the Pupkewitz Foundation rose to the challenge by pledging a sponsorship to the value of N$ 9 million towards the Shack Dwellers Federation Namibia (SDFN) in support of community driven housing over the next three years.
The SDFN’s strategy of providing low-income community driven housing is an extremely effective poverty eradication strategy. Being a homeowner and being able to offer your family a home and it is most certainly the dream of almost every Namibian, especially for the heads of households.
Housing and the availability of land have been recurring news topics over many years and rightly so, as we believe that all Namibians should have quality housing. While house prices might have taken a slight dip and seem to have stabilised somewhat, the prices are still not within the affordability range of the most vulnerable of our society.
We believe that having your own house, made of brick and mortar, and being able to afford it, is a positive step in the direction of anti-poverty as brick houses are built with a kitchen and a bathroom and possibly two more rooms, which could be utilised as an office or rented out for extra income. Having your own roof also means that owners are no longer at the mercy of possible ruthless landlords and can budget according to their monthly payments.
