A dream come true – And then there was light
The ‘Towards an Inclusive Design of the Renewable Energy Transition’ (TIDRET) project recently launched an electrification campaign that benefited 32 households, in collaboration with Erongo Red.
The community identified under Erongo RED for the TIDRET rural electrification component was the Shack Dwellers Community Houses in Swakopmund in the Erongo Region. One such recipient was Iilonna !Hoa-khaos.
! Hoa-khaos, is a single mother who works as a front desk reservations officer at a hotel in Swakopmund. She moved into her house in December 2022 and has been without electricity since. Managing her day–to–day housing exercises meant that she had to use a gas stove, a gas geyser for hot water, solar lights, and charge devices at her mother’s house.
But one of the most challenging encounters was being fridge-less. Upon hearing that she was selected as a beneficiary of the TIDRET project her immediate response was, “Thank God – finally it has happened.”
She further said, “This will change a lot of things for me and my son. He will be able to sit up late and study. We no longer have to chase the daylight or the sun or worry about candle-lit nights.”
Among other personal struggles, she looks forward to being able to cook on the stove again.
She added that gas tends to damage pots very easily. “My son is equally as excited as I am by this new progress, he is happy that the lights are on and that we no longer have to worry about charging anymore,” said !Hoa-khaos.
The areas visited in Swakopmund were 32 Shack Dwellers Foundation homes in Olutweni located in the Northern part of Swakopmund, which are distributed and built as per Municipal Town plans and regulations.
The Shack Dwellers Association houses located in Olutweni are permanent structures. The owners of these homes are low-income working individuals and due to circumstances and costly pricing of electrical installations, can’t afford to purchase supply equipment to connect to the grid. The owners of these homes have deeds of ownership or are legally registered with the Municipality as owners of these erven.
As for her message to the stakeholder that made this dream a reality – “I just want to say thank you. It may seem small to extend a mere thank you – but thank you, we do appreciate it – thank you to everyone who was involved”.
The electrification drive further targeted individual households within the identified communities of which 50% were women-headed households and MSMEs.
The drive is a partnership between the TIDRET Project component serving as project administrator and financier and the respective Regional Energy Distributors (REDs) assuming ultimate project ownership whilst further providing technical expertise.
The TIDRET Project is an initiative led by the Environmental Investment Fund of Namibia (EIF) under the European Union’s Climate Change and Inclusive Use of Natural Resources Project (CCIU-EU) of the Ministry of Environment, Forestry and Tourism (MEFT) administered through the GIZ.
