Poverty Ministry encourages communities to establish backyard gardens
The Deputy Minister of Poverty Eradication and Social Welfare, Aino Kapewangolo encouraged orphanages to start vegetable gardens at their respective establishments.
Kapewangolo said orphanages should establish some vegetable gardens within their home yards, to produce fresh nutritious vegetables to the children, adding that the practice would also teach the children how to produce food at the early age.
She said this while speaking at the Megameno Orphanage Home, where the ministry donated food recently. The orphanage was started by its current caretaker, Maria Shalukeni, from her own house in 1998 with only five children. In 2002 Shalukeni registered the orphanage with the Ministry of Gender and is currently home to 26 children.
The orphanage has managed to grow over the years with support received from the community and other stakeholders. “We are very happy and humbled to have people like you in our community and Namibia as a whole. We encourage you to keep on the relationship with the relatives of these children,” she added.
Apart from the food donation from the ministry, the orphanage also received additional N$500 cash and 30 loafs of brown bread from Kapewangolo. Meanwhile, the ministry is slated to rollout the second phase of the Food Bank initiative later this year in the //Karas and Hardap Regions.
