5 minute read
A BEACON OF HOPE FOR CHILDREN IN ONDANGWA
Oonte Orphans and Vulnerable Children Organisation
Petrine Shiimi could be called the Mother Teresa of Ondangwa. Like the latter, she has been looking after orphans and vulnerable children for years, but in Ondangwa and the surrounding villages. In 2006 she established Oonte, a charitable notfor-profit organisation based in Olukolo village, two kilometres west of Ondangwa.
A devout Christian, Shiimi was doing church work in Ondangwa villages during October 2004. She was appalled by the family circumstances in which many children lived.
“I became aware of several households headed by grandmothers. In many cases the grandmothers had lost their children to HIV/AIDS. Some of them were taking care of as many as 16 grandchildren, all in one household. Because the grandmothers had little or no source of income, these households were extremely poor. The children lived in horribly rundown homes, had no shoes and barely any food to eat or clean water to drink,” Shiimi recalls.
This experience prompted her, the former teacher turned Ondangwa businesswoman, to reach out to several friends in order to treat the destitute families to a Christmas party that year. Donations of items such as clothes and toys still kept coming in after Christmas, and this gave Shiimi the idea to start a welfare organisation that would look after orphans and vulnerable children in and around the town of Ondangwa.
The following year she convinced several acquaintances to form the organisation’s board of directors and, as they say, the rest is history. Oonte was formally registered as a nonprofit organisation in 2006.
Starting Oonte was no easy feat. With virtually no funds, they had to use their own means to run the day-to-day operations of the organisation, which at its inception cared for about 300 children. The three founding members worked without paying themselves any allowance or income. Adding to their woes was the fact that they needed a piece of land where they could build their centre. However, luck smiled on them as Shiimi’s husband Phillip, a businessman, offered them space in his business complex – free of charge.
Now that they had a centre for their activities, registered children received one healthy meal a day and also assistance with their school work before going home. In those early years, funds were raised in the form of donations from national and international donors. The money was used to purchase a piece of land where offices and other facilities such as classrooms, a dining hall and a kitchen have been built.
As the number of beneficiaries increased, and because donors attached conditions to the utilisation of their funds, the board devised a plan for the centre to become more self-sufficient.
As a result, a garden was set up to feed the children. Surplus produce is sold. For meat supplies, pigs are reared. Chickens are kept, and there is a fish pond with tilapia. Some of the fish is also sold to the public. Chickens and eggs are used for the childrens’ meals.
What started as a small community-based centre where 300 children received one cooked and healthy meal a day plus limited psychological and social support, has since grown into a fully-fledged community centre that provides food as well as educational and vocational support for children. Oonte’s emotional support is enhanced by shortterm camps, kids clubs, choir, dance clubs, after school sports programs and counselling. These programs also address health-related issues including HIV/AIDS prevention and support. Currently, over 700 children find protection, shelter and care at the centre.
DONOR ISSUES
During its 19 years of operation, many of Oonte’s activities have been funded by donors, local and international. Some of them signed agreements, others contributed on impulse. However, the future of this organisation, which has shaped the lives of thousands of children around Ondangwa, looks bleak. Shiimi says that many local donors on whom they used to rely have since withdrawn their support because of their own financial challenges. The impact on Oonte is immense.
The lack of sufficient funding from Namibia also tends to discourage international donors from coming on board, Shiimi points out. As an example she cites their erstwhile key international donor, ELMA Philanthropies, who indicated a few years ago that they would not renew their funding agreement if Oonte did not show them they had sufficient funding from Namibia.
When the agreement ended, ELMA Philanthropies indeed refused to renew it – which almost caused the closure of the centre. Luckily a new donor, Masa Wa Afrika, came on board, but the condition was that each side would fund 50% of Oonte’s annual budget. They have remained the main donors. But Shiimi still feels that Oonte’s funding is insufficient.
“Without sufficient funding from new Namibian donors, we will lose all funding from our key international donor. So, we desperately need to secure Namibian funding,” she says and points out that many of the elderly grandmothers are unable to properly look after their grandchildren, because they are too old for the task and due to their own serious health and disability challenges barely manage to take care of themselves. Oonte was filling that void.
Shiimi has an unambiguous message to potential donors. “While I know these are difficult times for many of us, on behalf of these children I must ask that today you dig deep within your heart and give whatever you can – no matter how small – to help Oonte continue serving these children. Together we can help them, many who feel lost and forgotten, have bright futures. Please help Oonte continue to bring the rays of Jesus’ love to these children so that they too can reach their Godgiven potential.”
