
AVP Namibia Chairperson Rosa Namises, trustee of the FNB Foundation Ian Leyemaar and Chairperson of the Association for Alternatives to Violence Project Namibia, Helen Vale at the handover. (Photograph by Melba Chipepo).
The First National Bank Foundation this week donated N$197,000 to the Alternatives to Violence Project (AVP). Speaking at the event FNB CEO and trustee of the Foundation, Ian Leyenaar expressed concern over the increase in violence.
“In a beautiful country such as ours with only about 2 million people, the increase in violence in the country is unacceptable. Recently our Minister of Gender Equality and Child Welfare also expressed her displeasure about the rapid increase in gender based violence and mentioned that the entire nation should be concerned”.
The Alternatives to Violence Project (AVP) started in 1975 as a collaboration between prisoners and Quakers in the USA. The association came to Namibia in 2005 when clinical psychologist and former UNAM lecturer, Gudrun Kober, exchanged views with Helen Vale, local AVP coordinator.