Networking
Networking
with Member Organisations
Through
a number of regional events WIMSA has kept in close contact with its member
organisations in Botswana, Namibia and South Africa. WIMSA/Botswana carried
out its task of catering to the member organisations in that country in
co-operation with the Letloa Trust, a newly established San support organisation
based in Maun in northern Boswana, which is closely linked to the Kuru
Family of Organisations. Member organisations in South Africa are served
by their own support organisation, the South African San Institute (SASI).
As the regional WIMSA is based in Namibia where a national San support
organisation has not yet been established - the NNDFN serves the NNC only
- the Namibian San generally refer their development requests to the regional
WIMSA.
West
Caprivi Development Trust
Besides
the support provided to the West Caprivi Khwe leaders and community members
in their efforts to keep in touch with their fellow Khwe in the Dukwe
Refugee Camp in Botswana, the regional WIMSA assisted a number of individual
Khwe with transport, accommodation and other logistical needs, and with
the complex administrative procedure involved in securing a state pension.
San
Project Committee in West Kavango
The San Project
Committee in West Kavango representing the !Xun of Nkurenkuru village
in the Kavango Region in Namibia reported to WIMSA that all committee
members had ploughed their fields during the 2001 rainy season and anticipated
good maize, sorghum and bean harvests in 2002 despite the rains having
fallen very late this year. WIMSA fulfilled the committee's request for
funds to purchase a dairy cow to provide a more nutritious diet for their
children particularly.
Hai||om
and !Kung in
Outjo Area
In November
2001 WIMSA and Hai||om community facilitator Elfriede Gaeses signed an
agreement tasking her to assist Hai||om and !Kung individuals to obtain
Namibian ID documents, organise community meetings, report human rights
abuses, address school-related matters and co-ordinate the WIMSA Oral
Testimony Collection Project in the area inhabited by Hai||om. This agreement
supplements an agreement between the Agency for Personal Services Overseas
(APSO) and Elfriede Gaeses in which APSO pledges financial support for
her post as part-time community facilitator for the Hai||om. In December
2001 WIMSA agreed to help equip an office in Outjo which Elfriede managed
to secure rent free from the Outjo Municipality having successfully tackled
the bureaucratic hurdles.
At the beginning
of 2002 Elfriede helped a number of Hai||om children to enrol in schools
in Outjo District and took firm action when a school principal rejected
some children on the grounds that his school was full unless the children's
parents paid a certain fee. With assistance from WIMSA and the Intersectoral
Task Force on Educationally Marginalised Children Elfriede managed to
enrol the children in this school within a few days. She regularly submits
narrative and financial reports to WIMSA and APSO.
Ju|'hoansi
and !Kung in
Tsumkwe East and West
Besides supporting
the Ju|'hoan Traditional Authority in Tsumkwe District East on various
occasions WIMSA invited NNC and NNDFN representatives to liaison meetings
on a regular basis. The outcomes of these meetings and other issues relating
to the NNDFN will be covered in the section on networking with NGOs.
At the request
of the !Kung community of Tsumkwe District West WIMSA invited Thekla Hohmann,
who conducted research in this community in the late 1990s towards a Masters
degree in Anthropology from the University of Cologne, to undertake a
consultancy involving helping the community to plan for establishing their
CBO, discussing a tourism development plan with the N‡a Jaqna Conservancy
Committee and assisting the Omatako Campsite Committee in its management
efforts. Based on the outcomes of community meetings she convened Thekla
prepared a proposal for establishing the CBO and implementing its envisaged
activities. This proposal was not submitted to potential donors as WIMSA
learned that the NNDFN was planning to expand its services to Tsumkwe
West. Following discussions between the NNDFN and !Kung leaders the community
decided to focus on getting their own CBO properly established before
approaching any support organisation for further development assistance,
thus WIMSA will go ahead and submit the proposal to potential donors.
Sonneblom/Donkerbos
Committee
Gobabis-based
social workers Marie Claire and Raymond Martin continued to assist the
San at the Sonneblom/Donkerbos farm in the Omaheke Region, while WIMSA
co-ordinated the issues linked to the drilling of two boreholes on the
farm. After geophysical surveying and borehole siting, a 250 m borehole
was sunk on the two most suitable sites identified. Unfortunately both
boreholes reached a yield of only 200 litres per hour, this being too
small a yield to warrant installing a water pump. WIMSA is endeavouring
to raise funds to continue the search for water on the farm to enable
the Naro and Ju|'hoansi communities of Sonneblom and Donkerbos respectively
to pursue their livestock-rearing plans.
In July 2001
WIMSA facilitated a meeting of Sonneblom/Donkerbos community leaders and
Mbandero traditional leaders called to address persisting problems between
the Sonneblom/Donkerbos San community and their Mbandero farming neighbours.
The parties discussed the matters of San youth having repeatedly stolen
cattle and goats from the Mbandero farmers for immediate consumption,
and Mbandero farmers having cut the Sonneblom/Donkerbos fence, chased
game off the farm and killed it for their own immediate consumption, in
addition to having driven their cattle into the Sonneblom/Donkerbos farm
for better pasture and drinking water from the two boreholes the San have
established for their own development purposes. The San reiterated in
this meeting that the majority of San elders on the farm disapproved of
the youth's thievery, while the Mbandero leaders condemned the Mbandero
farmers' actions. The parties agreed that once new boreholes have been
successfully sunk on Sonneblom/Donkerbos, a meeting of the Mbandero and
San communities should be called to seek lasting solutions to the problems
and to explain the San's development plans to the neighbours.
Omaheke
San Trust
WIMSA continued
supporting the Omaheke San Trust (OST) by providing training to the Ju|'hoan
and !Xõó Traditional Authorities, and technical advice,
administrative assistance and financial support to the OST itself. Based
on many years of experience WIMSA was able to make key input into the
OST technical advisor's work of drawing up a comprehensive three-year
plan for San development in the Omaheke Region.
Teemashane
Development Trust
In July 2001
WIMSA received an application from the Teemashane Development Trust (TDT),
a member organisation in Botswana, for a grant to undertake a fishing
project. The application stated that the community of Mohembo, constituting
one of the nine sub-committees of the TDT, had organised itself to catch
and sell fish to generate income. The community needed funds for fencing
a plot and constructing a shelter to house the fishing gear and a refrigerator.
WIMSA felt it worthwhile to provide the financial support necessary to
get this viable community initiative off the ground.
Kuru
Family of Organisations
Victoria
Geingos, Elfriede Gaeses, Joram |Useb and Chief John Arnold represented
WIMSA at the launch of the new Kuru Family of Organisations (KFO) in D'Kar,
Botswana, in August 2001. The founding of the KFO and the Letloa Trust,
a support organisation for the KFO primarily, are consequences of the
recent restructuring of the programmes and activities of the Kuru Development
Trust, an organisation which worked on development issues with and for
marginalised minority groups, in west and north-west Botswana, mainly
San, for over 10 years. The KFO is a loose network of organisations, namely
the Komku Trust, the Kuru D'Kar Trust, the Bokamoso Trust, the Trust for
Okavango Cultural and Development Initiatives (TOCaDI), Gantsi Crafts
and Kuru Crafts. WIMSA/Botswana has already submitted its application
for membership of Letloa, which determines its relationship with its members
on a contractual basis.
In his speech
at the KFO launch WIMSA representative Joram |Useb congratulated the Kuru
staff in general and TOCaDI Co-ordinator Braam le Roux in particular for
their tolerance, courage, creativity, humour, integrity and perseverance
in establishing the Kuru Family of Organisations and Letloa Trust. Joram
pointed out that WIMSA looked forward to good co-operation with the KFO.
Good co-operation
has indeed developed between WIMSA and the KFO. The Komku Trust, Bokamoso
Trust, Kuru D'Kar Trust and TOCaDI all identified and assisted San candidates
in applying for a place in the TUCSIN Public Relations Officers Course
which recently commenced in Windhoek, and the necessary study permits.
Frequent exchanges of information, ideas and views took place between
TOCaDI and WIMSA throughout the period under review.
WIMSA
Office
Apart from
going out to consult with the San in their own communities, the WIMSA
team members listen attentively to and where mandated act on behalf of
the numerous San individuals who visit the office in Windhoek for advice
and assistance, or to discuss plans, report human rights violations and
generally update WIMSA on developments in their communities.
|