Where New Hope Children's Fund Works?

New Hope Children's Fund was born out of work located in the Nau-Aib location of Okahandja, Namibia. For people familiar with Namibia and Namibian history, this simple statement says quite a bit about the Fund and the people it seeks to serve.

Map of Namibia and Africa

Map of Namibia with the town of Okahandja Circled

Namibia is a relatively young country having gained it's independence from South Africa in 1990. Prior to then it was called Southwest Africa and was governed according to the same apartheid era laws that governed life in South Africa. According to these laws, people of different colors were were forcibly kept apart. In the simplest physical sense, this meant that white Namibians and black Namibians were made to live in different parts of towns.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Locations or townships are places where black people and people of mixed races were forced to live. These places were frequently intentionally placed far from industrial areas, central business districts, and wealthy and middle class residential areas. As such, the black populations were forced to walk long distances to get to their places of employment. Although these strict laws are no longer in effect, economic inequality and inadequate employment still dictates that many black Namibians live in these locations.

While residents of the locations are proud and honorable people, life in the locations can be quite hard. Unemployment in Namibia is quite high and good jobs are difficult to find. Quite frequently, even if a person has secured decent employment, he or she is then responsible for helping out large numbers of other family members who also need help. This provides for a certain amount of economic security, but this security is not always dependable in difficult economic times.

Another difficulty facing Namibia is its high HIV/AIDS rate. Recent estimates suggest that Namibia has the third highest rate of HIV infections in the world. This scourge brings additional burden to the residents of locations such as Nau-Aib as the disease tends to strike people in their economic prime. It also frequently leaves children without the parents, aunts, and uncles. Further, there are great costs (economic, physical mental, and spritual) related to caring for a sick family member.