January 2023 News

Together with our deep gratitude for your support in 2022, here are some highlights of the achievements your donations made possible. The most important is the completion and opening of the Mother House, a home for 16 orphaned and vulnerable children of Drimiopsis! 

Mother House

Left, children dancing at a community celebration of the opening of the Mother House.

Lazarus Musambani, Director of the Omaruru Children’s Orphanage and CSN Board Member, selected 16 of the most vulnerable children from a possible 75 in Drimiopsis, to reside at the Mother House until age 18. His expertise with Ministry guidelines speeded up registering the Sanctuary as a Child Care Facility. With her two children, Belinda Tsuses was hired and moved into the house to become the resident Manager.  Lazarus taught Belinda, Chief Ita, and the House Mothers, Viktoria and Katrina, many aspects of their roles. Belinda ensures that Ministry guidelines are followed. As a team under Belinda’s guidance, they provide loving care for the children who are now settled into their new home, enjoying food, shelter, and support in all aspects of life, including school. The youngest children attend Sanveld Kindergarten, while the older ones attend the local public school. 

Four children who didn’t know their birthdates or ages, proudly display their birth certificates!

CSN Manager

Belinda Tsuses has been busy this year supervising routines and programs in the House, supervising CSN’s food and garden projects, and cultivating positive relationships with neighbours and merchants from local communities. She has brought CSN and the Sanctuary to the attention of Namibians by inviting their support via media interviews. Since electricity has yet to be supplied to the Moher House, Belinda uses a donated laptop and her cell phone at the home of Theresa Matengu, the High School teacher who co-founded CSN with Helge Mercker and Chief Ita.    

Soup Kitchen

The Soup Kitchen remains a vital resource for 120 + orphaned and vulnerable children who receive three meals weekly from a dedicated group of volunteers. Left, orphaned and vulnerable children gather for a special Soup Kitchen Christmas meal, including a meat serving. Each child and volunteer received a Christmas gift of food items.

Kindergarten Food Program

CSNS funds the Sanveld Kindergarten food program, providing two meals daily, five days a week, during the school year for the 55 children in attendance.  Left, the children wash their hands before entering their school for a meal.

Sanctuary Garden

Expanding the Sanctuary’s Gardens remains a crucial goal for CSN. CSNS is fundraising to purchase shade netting, a solar panel water pumping system, fruit trees, and fertilizer. Produce from the garden supplements the children’s mealie porridge and lentils diet. Crops of carrots, spinach, and sweet potatoes are grown year-round, while watermelon, mealies, tomatoes, and onions are planted during the summer.

CSNS Board

The CSNS Board welcomes a new board member, Tyler Cresswell. Tyler’s business and marketing knowledge is a valuable resource for our board of retired social workers and teachers.  From left to right, Tyler Cresswell, Yvonne de Troye, Diane Mawson, Judy Dunbar, Betty Owen, and Terry Adler. Absent: Helge Mercker, our agent in Namibia.

A note about fundraising

Left: We thank Yvonne for hosting another successful house concert at her lovely home in Tsawwassen, B.C. A special “thank you” to the staff and students of Canyon Heights Elementary School in North Vancouver, BC, for their continued support of the “Pops for Namibia” program. Proceeds from the sale of popsicles support the food program at Sanveld Kindergarten and the Soup Kitchen.

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August, 2022 News

Dear friends, donors, and supporters,

We hope you enjoy reading this mid-year update on activities happening on the CSN Sanctuary Land!. Thank you for your support!

A New Manager for the Sanctuary
In February, Ms Belinda Tsuses was hired to manage the Mother House and Children’s Sanctuary Namibia (CSN) projects. She and her two children have taken up residence in the Mother House (MH). Her presence as manager is moving CSN forward in exciting new ways.  Together with CSN board member Lazarus Musambani, they guided the process of establishing the orphanage with a full staff and selection of 16 of the most vulnerable children who will reside in the Mother House until the age of 18.

Belinda Tsuses and Grandmother Chief Ita in a joyful moment.

The Children are Welcomed

Moving into the Mother House was a bewildering and overwhelming time for the children due to the magnitude of the change they experienced. Each child was vulnerable and required time and space to heal; some felt overwhelmed by the sudden abundance of food. Each was supported in love and assessed by the house mothers and volunteers who they were very familiar with. 

The 16 children living in the Mother House under CSN’s full-time care include 4 sets of siblings: 3 brothers aged 6, 9, and 12; a set of twins, aged 5 (boy and girl); a set of siblings aged 9 and 11 (boy and girl); a set of siblings aged 7 and 10 (boy and girl). The children living on-site without siblings are aged 15, 14, 12 (2), 11, and 8. One child is HIV positive, is on medication, and is seen monthly by the Doctor.  

Community Welcoming ceremony for the 16 children moving into the Mother House (pictured).

The children arrived without any clothes and what clothes they had were torn. A successful clothing fundraiser was held in Swakopmund. Now each child has a collection of clothing to wear including school uniforms.

 CSNS Staff

Zuma (gardener and handyman), Katrina (housemother for the girls), Viktoria (housemother for the boys), Wilhelmina and Lydia (soup kitchen volunteers), and Johannes (gardener’s assistant). In the middle is Belinda (manager) and in front is Chief Ita (board member and grandmother for all the children). 

More staff workshops are planned in the coming weeks and will be presented by a social worker.

Visitors to the Sanctuary

In mid-March, there was a surprise visit by multiple ministries of marginalized communities who came to view the Drimiopsis settlement as a whole but they also came to the children’s home. The visitors included representatives from the Ministry of Gender Equality, Poverty Eradication & Social Welfare; World Food Program; World Health Organisation; National Planning Commission of Namibia; Nutrition and Food Security Alliance of Namibia; Food Bank of Namibia Co-ordinator Omaheke Region; and a Member from the Office of the President for marginalized communities. 

They asked many questions about the Mother House operation and conducted a thorough inspection visiting all the rooms, storage facilities, gardens, and grounds. Manager Belinda Tsuses reported, “they loved the place--they were very impressed by what they saw.” Spontaneously, the girls provided dance and entertainment for the visitors. This surprise visit included key contacts from the offices which whom Belinda needs to liaise with. What a wonderful start for our new manager!

Hon Ignatius Kariseb, chairperson of the Omaheke Regional Council and Regional Councillor of the Kalahari Constituency, Omaheke Region, also visited the facility. He is the key Government person overseeing electrical power to the Mother House through the installation of a power pole. The Councillor met with Belinda to report the pole is close to being installed and work has started elsewhere in Drimiopsis. However, due to a shortage of needed materials that come from South African suppliers the work was halted temporarily. 

The Councilor expressed interest in supporting an orchard on the land. 

In April, visitors from the Ministry of Gender Equality and Child Welfare collected pictures and information about CSN and the MH. They raised the possibility of establishing an Early Childhood Centre to be built on the Sanctuary land (all being part of CSN Children’s Village). They donated 10 packs of 20x500g instant porridge.

Food Programs 

Funding CSN’s food programs remains a top priority for CSNS. Dedicated Soup Kitchen volunteers continue to provide 3 meals each week to 57+ orphaned and vulnerable children in the community. In addition, CSNS continues to fund the Sanveld Kindergarten’s food program, providing 2 meals daily Monday through Friday to 55 children.

Following their March visit, the UN’s World Food Program approached CSN to operate a daily food program for 200 young children aged 5 and younger. The 4-month program which started in June is an effort to fight malnutrition in vulnerable young children through the winter months.  The program is financed by the World Food Program and Manager Belinda is an integral part of coordinating all efforts. We are very grateful the little ones are all catered for during the cold winter months. 

Above Mothers bring their children to receive food. All made possible through CSN’s volunteers and staff.

A mother feeding her young children.

Garden

Developing the garden remains a top priority for CSN and CSNS. The goals for 2022 are to install netting for shade, plant an orchard, and improve irrigation. “We desperately need donations for shade netting, fruit trees, and watering pipes,” Belinda implores.

Planting a winter crop of onions, carrots, mutate, cabbage, and beetroots.

Education

The youngest children attend Sanveld Kindergarten in Drimiopsis while the others attend Drimiopsis Primary School. All the children enjoy wearing their new school uniforms and school clothes! The older girls attend a weekly girls empowering workshop.

Chief Ita is very much the grandmother of all the children. She enjoys teaching them about the traditional way of life of the San people. The children enjoy their time with Grandmother Ita very much!

Above Ita demonstrates how to build a traditional San home.

The children enjoy the finished San house.

A Container from Germany Arrives!

The organization, “Hilfe fuer Namibia” shipped a container from Germany containing bedding, blankets, towels, children’s clothing, jackets, and warm clothing. Agent/CSN Board Member Helge Mercker gratefully accepted the goods--her car was loaded to the rim as she made her way to Drimiopsis. With winter fast approaching the goods arrived in perfect timing!

Grandmother Ita, Viktoria and Katrina (housemothers), and Zuma (gardener/handyman) help unload donated goods from Helge’s car.

A note about CSNS fundraising…

Covid 19 continues to impact fundraising by limiting the size and nature of our venues. We are grateful to the staff and students of Canyon Heights Elementary School for their continuing support of the “Pops for Namibia” program which raises funds through popsicle sales. If your school or group is interested in a popsicle sale fundraising event for CSN, please contact Board Member Diane Mawson for information.  She can be reached through email at dhmawson@shaw.ca.

A successful plant sale fundraiser was held in April and May, at Board Member Judy Dunbar’s home in Gibsons. Judy is deeply grateful for all the help and donations of plants from Betty, Diane, Al Fike, Heather Gordon, and other able gardeners in her community. We also extend our gratitude to Board Members Yvonne de Troye and Gayle Rutt who have organized a house concert at Yvonne’s home later this month. And a BIG thank you to everyone who held birthday fundraiser events and activities!

From left to right, CSNS Board members Betty Owen, Diane Mawson, and Judy Dunbar set up tables and plants for the plant sale fundraiser

CSN’s website, (our sister agency in Namibia) is now active. For additional information and pictures visit their website at www.childrenssanctuarynamibia.com

We hope you enjoy the images below of the children enjoying some leisure activities…. 

Some of the children “hanging out”. Although fascinating to hold, Gardener Zuma dreads the presence of hungry caterpillars in the gardens.

On July 24th a birthday party was held for eleven children whose birthdays occurred between January and July. A professional baker made cakes for the children at no charge as her way of giving back to the community. CSN supplied only the ingredients.

January 14, 2022 News

Dear CSNS Supporters and Donors,

We joyfully share with you the exciting news that 16 children (8 boys, 8 girls) have now moved into the Mother House on the Sanctuary land! It was a gradual move-in to help the children adjust from the lives they have known to a new life with many unknowns; having two dedicated caregivers, a place they can call their own, the certainty of having their material and emotional needs met, relationships with other children who will become to them like siblings.

 This is a tremendous achievement, made possible by the material and moral support provided by yourselves, our valued donors, and volunteers. Your contributions helped this dream become reality! Our heartfelt thanks to each of you!

 CSN Board member, Lazarus, Principal of Omaruru Childrens’ Haven, was authorized by the Ministry of Child Welfare to choose the children from the 75 most vulnerable, due to his extensive knowledge of guidelines for residential childcare facilities and excellent relationship with the Ministry. Ministry Social Workers will make an onsite visit in February.

Girls’ dormitory room.

Lazarus is also helping select and hire a Manager for the Mother House who will guide its development and work towards our longer-term vision of helping the Drimiopsis community meet the needs of all its vulnerable children.

For this new year of 2022 our goals are:

 1)  To raise funds to pay the operational costs for the Mother House, including: a) wages; salaries for the manager, two house mothers, a part-time housemother, a gardener/handyman, security guard/handyman and gardeners assistant; b) meals; 3 x/day, 7 days a week for 14 children and 2 adults

2)  To continue to feed 57 vulnerable children 3 meals weekly through the Soup Kitchen and to pay honoraria to 7 Soup Kitchen volunteers

3)  To fund the kindergarten food program providing a meal, five days a week, for 44 children

4)  To further develop the garden to augment the children’s diet; raise money to make the garden self-sustainable by selling excess produce to the community; purchase shade-netting and fruit trees

5)  Support the development of the Mother House program and its designation as a residential childcare facility through training and other resources.

To achieve the above goals, our 2022 fundraising target is $40,000 Canadian.

 Thank you for being such an important part of this transformative process that is bringing such joy for the people of Drimiopsis and their most needy little ones!

 Sincerely,

Helge, Terry, Diane, Betty, Judy and Yvonne

Gardener/Handyman Zuma painting a portion of the children’s playground funded by CSNS. Gardener’s Assistant, Johannes is in the background.

2021 Summer News Update

Dear Friends and Donors of Children’s Sanctuary Namibia Society,

We are happy to share with you an update on current progress and challenges in Drimiopsis Namibia, the community we help in partnership with Children’s Sanctuary Namibia. More than ever, our role in assisting this community to care for their most vulnerable children is life-altering. We are a trusted ally working with them to provide for these little ones, as well as to contribute resources that can raise the quality of life for everyone in the community over time. Please read how this is happening through the support of many of you! Thank you!!!

Development Continues on the Sanctuary Land…..

With the goal of future self-sustainability in mind, development of the indigenous and vegetable gardens on the Sanctuary land remains a top priority for CSN and CSNS. Gardener/Handyman Joel Zuma, and his assistants, Johannes and David, devoted countless hours planting and tending to this year’s crops of corn, melons, onions, cabbage, garlic, cassava, beetroot, sweet potatoes, spinach, peppers, carrots and tomatoes. While this year’s harvest was considerably larger than last year’s, the control of pests, such as rats and locusts, and nourishment of the soil pose ongoing challenges. Future plans for the garden include planting an orchard, (e.g. citrus trees, figs, olives) and installing industrial greenhouses or tunnels to grow tomatoes and a wide variety of vegetables. The goal is to sell excess nutritional produce from self-sustaining gardens to the Drimiopsis community. The garden is an ongoing CSNS project requiring much labor.

One of Zuma’s children in the corn patch.

Melons growing in the Sanctuary garden formed part of the summer crop. They proved to be a nutritional food source more resistant to the threat of locusts and other insects.

Zuma attends to a portion of the recently planted “Winter” garden.

David and Zuma attend to the corn patch (summer garden).

CSNS recently financed the construction of fencing to protect the water towers.

Upgrades to Staff Homes….

 CSNS funded the recent repair and upgrading of the homes of the three full time workers, Gardener/Handyman Joel Zuma, Security Guard/Handyman David Arikaner and Gardening Assistant, Johannes Kafuru. CSNS continues to provide the annual salaries for these three hard-working men who live on the Sanctuary land with their families.

Pictured above is the extension built to Zuma’s home, who lives with his wife and four children close to the water towers.

Above is the home built adjacent to the garden shed for 19-year-old Johannes, gardening assistant.

Update on the Mother House….

CSN in cooperation with Namibian Child Welfare anticipates 18 orphans (nine boys, nine girls) will be moved permanently into the Mother House as soon as electricity is available to the site, two house mothers are trained, and the house is fully equipped. We are almost there!!! The kitchen is now completed - floor tiles were installed, ceilings painted, countertops and appliances are in place. A Namibian donor provided the new clothes washing machine now installed in the kitchen. All the furniture needed to equip the house (e.g., bunkbeds, bedroom cupboards, dining tables, chairs, etc.) has been ordered.

CSN is working with a contractor from Gobabis to install solar panels to complete the electrical needs for the Mother House and to power the pump used for the water tanks. Viktoria and Katrina, the two soup kitchen volunteers who have been hired to care for the children, have recently completed their house mother training at an orphanage in Omaruru. They returned inspired and committed and eagerly await the opportunity to care for the children! CSNS provided financial support for these projects.

The recently completed kitchen in the Mother House.

Update on the Soup Kitchen….                                                                                  

In April, the soup kitchen was relocated to another place on the Sanctuary land in an area between the fence and David’s home. This change was made in preparation for 18 children moving into the Mother House.

Due to a strong second wave of Covid 19 throughout Namibia and recent cases of Covid in Drimiopsis, the soup kitchen was temporarily closed. During the weeks of closure, CSN board members worked hard to try to ensure deliveries of food to those in the community who could distribute it. The soup kitchen has now reopened and protective measures continue to be in place. Over 75 orphans and vulnerable children are fed a meal 3 times per week under the capable direction of Viktoria, Katrina and Chief Ita.

Children enjoying a soup kitchen meal.

A Note About Fundraising….

Covid 19 restrictions have impacted CSNS fundraising efforts. With the exception of the Spring bulb and plant sale fundraisers held in Gibsons, BC, fundraising activities have moved online. We are grateful to Board member Yvonne de Troye and to Kris Bowerman for organizing the successful online jazz concert featuring the Kris Jay Trio in honour of Yvonne’s 65th birthday.  

Over 500 perennial plants of all shapes and sizes were available for purchase this year. A big “thank you” to Al Fike, Heather Gordon, Judy Dunbar and Betty Owen for their contribution of plants.

The Kris Jay Trio performing an on-line concert in honour of Board Member Yvonne de Troye’s 65th birthday.  

We are honoured to be a part of this continuing process of community development in Drimiopsis, Namibia. We thank you for your financial and prayerful support.

Helge Mercker, Terry Adler, Diane Mawson, Betty Owen, Judy Dunbar and Yvonne de Troye, CSNS Board

2020 President's Report - Terry Adler, CSNS Chair

Mural painted by Deon Kous, Drimiopsis resident & former student of CSN’s Theresa Matengu.

Our CSNS Board is thrilled with the great progress you and our other donors have helped us achieve this past year! In 2020, with your help, and the generosity of an anonymous donor who matched donations received to $10,000, we sent $34,000 to our sister charity, Children’s Sanctuary Namibia or CSN.

A portion of the Mother House, a future home for 18 orphaned and vulnerable children (OVC).

With it, CSN has nearly completed the construction of the Mother House, a future home for 18 orphaned and vulnerable children.  During the past year, separate showers, sinks and toilets for boys and girls were added to the building, sewage tanks and laundry facilities were installed. All of these were made possible by the drilling of a well and the installation of two water tanks plus the frames to support them. We are so grateful that water was found on the sanctuary property, since a reliable source of water for the Mother House, its garden and property, is a vital necessity that sustains all other initiatives.

A portion of the fencing erected around the 4.5 hectare site.

The completion of the ceilings and installation of floor tiles is underway. A fence around the entire perimeter of the 4.5-hectare Sanctuary property was completed. With the reliable water supply found last year, the gardens were expanded to include indigenous species, ornamentals and a wider variety of fruits and vegetables, paving the way for future self-sustainability.

A portion of the gardens on site.

Funds raised in 2020 paid the salaries of three fulltime staff - a security guard, a gardener/handyman and a gardener’s assistant.

These funds also provided food and salaries for part time workers erecting the building.

CSNS paid the wages for two housekeepers--Chief Ita and her assistant Victoria who supervise 9 soup kitchen volunteers and oversee the wellbeing of the children served.

Most importantly, our donations kept the food programs going. These include feeding 44 kindergarten children 2 meals a day, 5 days a week, plus the soup kitchen meals that are provided 3 times per week, serve an average of 112 orphaned and vulnerable children (OVC) at each meal, and sometimes many more due to hardships related to covid-19.

Zuma, Handyman/Gardener serving children attending soup kitchen.

Volunteers serving children a soup kitchen meal.

These are wonderful steps towards achieving our vision, which is to create true sanctuary for orphaned and vulnerable children (OVC) where their needs for belonging, nurturing, learning and love can all be met.

For you to appreciate how far we have come in the seven years since our sister charity CSN started and the two years since CSNS became a Canadian registered charity, I would like to tell you a bit about the community we help and why it needs support from people half a world away. It is a story that reveals both the strengths and frailties of human nature and what is required to build on these strengths.

The story begins in 1991 when the Namibian government took a San community of 200 families and relocated them from their ancestral lands to a resettlement camp created for them, called Drimiopsis. Prior to being relocated, the San lived a self-sufficient hunter-gatherer lifestyle and practised their culture and traditions which were inextricably interwoven with the natural world. It was not their decision to move. The government’s stated reason for moving them was “to settle them into a more economically viable sector of society”. It could be argued that the actual reason was to free more land for cattle ranching.

Drimiopsis Resettlement Camp is 45 km north of Gobabis, the nearest town. There is no public transportation or medical facilities.

In fact, rather than being a doorway to economic integration, the resettlement camp is situated 45 km north of the nearest town, Gobabis, with no public transport, no local health services, and most important, no way of making a living. It is surrounded by cattle ranches.

People in Drimiopsis are dependent on the government which supplies a monthly pension for seniors of about $130 CAD. This is given to both San seniors and those of other tribes who have moved to Drimiopsis. Parents and guardians can receive a grant of $25 CAD per month to support an orphan or vulnerable child, but many do not receive it since they do not have the necessary documents (either the parents’ identity document or a birth certificate).

 The outcomes are predictable, as they would be for any group of people similarly relocated. Except for a tiny minority who found employment in the local cattle ranches and thus were able to feed their families, most live in despair and hopelessness. Because of the absence of ways to make a living, men are the hardest hit. They cannot provide for their loved ones in traditional ways nor in contemporary ways because the former was possible only in relationship to land which is no longer available and the latter to jobs and access to jobs which also are not available.

Despair makes people vulnerable to alcohol and drugs, a form of escape from an intolerable life without purpose. Because women still have the important job of producing and raising children, their lives have more meaning. But many are still drawn into alcohol abuse. Everyone in the community suffers from the effects of alcoholism and the entry of HIV/AIDS into Drimiopsis. Namibia has one of the world’s highest HIV prevalence rates, currently about 12% of the population, down from 18% seven years ago.

 The entire community suffers from malnutrition, subsisting on a diet of mealie porridge severely lacking in protein, vitamins, minerals and other important nutrients. I don’t have to tell you how this impacts health at every age and stage of life, especially over three generations.

This is the context in which one person, a teacher in the local residential high school that serves district teens, was moved to make a difference. Her name is Theresa Matengu. In 2013, Theresa, with the support of her husband and sister, who donated a large cooking pot, began feeding the most vulnerable children from her home kitchen on the school grounds. Theresa had been doing this for some months when our dear friend Helge Mercker heard of her and went to meet her.

CSN founders Theresa Matengu (right) and Helge Mercker, on the Sanctuary Land in 2019.

They instantly connected and began working together with the elected chief of the San people, Ita Kambases, mother, grandmother, problem solver, natural helper. Helge’s father Hanse, who at the time owned a cattle ranch 17 km from Drimiopsis, came to the community and built a simple outdoor kitchen.

Chief Ita Kambases with Helge in the soup kitchen built by Hanse Mercker.

Soup kitchen - early days. Chief Ita with volunteers who continue to serve.

Helge appealed to her networks in Germany, Namibia, the US and Canada for help. Amongst her early supporters were Al and Jeanne Fike of Gibsons, BC Canada and Geoff Cutler from Sydney Australia who had met Helge at a prayer retreat at the Fike’s home in 2012. Later they all went to visit her in Namibia in 2014. That was the year CSN received charitable status from the Namibian government which donated 4.5 hectares of land in the resettlement camp of Drimiopsis to establish a sanctuary for OVC.

From left to right, Al Fike, Jeanne Fike, Geoff Cutler and Helge Mercker in rear.

In April 2017, I visited Namibia and upon returning, set in motion the process for creating a sister charity to CSN. It was clear to me that the San people have tremendous human potential, and that an ally from the so-called developed world partnering with CSN to help meet the San’s basic human needs was a necessary first step towards actualizing their potential. In April 2018, we were granted charitable status by CRA. In August 2019, three other board members, Betty, Judy and Diane, visited Drimiopsis as well.

From left to right, supporters Kevin O’Neill, Theresa Matengu, Terry Adler, Marion Hordjik and Arie Hordjik (rear).

CSNS Board Members Betty Owen, Diane Mawson & Judy Dunbar serving children a soup kitchen meal, August 2019.

As we approach International Women’s Day, I want to acknowledge how the burden of care in the 30 devastating years since the San were relocated to Drimiopsis has fallen upon women. In the survey conducted by Helge Mercker in 2013, 92% of the household respondents were female, 8% were male. Absenteeism of males has become common as they either work out of the community, move away to seek work, are imprisoned or have died.

The survey further revealed that in 66% of the homes, for every one of their own children, caregivers were looking after two additional non-biological children. The number of orphans continues to increase due to HIV/AIDS, poverty, TB, cancer and accidents. The number of vulnerable children continues to rise due to HIV/AIDS, poverty, deaths, unemployment and TB.

Death and loss are so much a part of this community’s life. It falls primarily to mothers, grandmothers, aunts and older female children to support children in the grief process and indeed support them in nearly every way. CSN, and we as their partner charity, have created an avenue for hope in the community, a grassroots project working with local women and men that builds upon the great strengths inherent in the San people and their culture that goes beyond survival to a place where their children can thrive.  

In the past two years, the generosity of our donors, the hard work and creativity of our board members, have enabled us to send CSN the resources to build the sanctuary and the infrastructure to sustain it, as well as to continue the food programs at the kindergarten and soup kitchen. The building process has provided jobs, temporary and permanent, for a small number of men and women in the community. Our fund raising has permitted CSN to offer modest honoraria to the wonderful and committed women volunteers, most of whom have been involved from the start of the soup kitchen.  

The building of the sanctuary and feeding of their most vulnerable citizens has become a source of hope for the community, tangible evidence that they are not alone, that positive change can happen, and they can be part of it, and that more is to come.

CSNS Board Members Judy Dunbar, Betty Owen, Diane Mawson, Terry Adler & Helge Mercker (rear) receiving a cheque from Canyon Heights school in North Vancouver, BC during a school presentation.

Moving forward, in 2021 CSNS is committed to providing necessary funds to CSN to cover the annual operational expenses of the Sanctuary. This entails providing funds for the soup kitchen and kindergarten food programs, paying salaries for 5 people, providing honoraria to 11 volunteers, and maintaining the garden.

Chief Ita with the soup kitchen volunteers and visiting CSNS board members in back row.

Jeremiah Molestane, CSN President with wife Lydia (CSN board member & Kindergarten teacher) in front of the Sanveld Kindergarten.

This year, CSN in cooperation with Namibian Child Welfare, anticipates 18 orphans (9 boys & 9 girls) will be moved permanently into the Mother House. To accomplish this, CSN needs to complete the electrical needs for the site and to train two local women to be house mothers. Funds are needed to cover the costs of the power source (e.g. solar panels), training costs for two local women who will take up residence in the Mother House, plus supplying the house with furniture, bedding, utensils and other needed equipment. Thus, our fundraising goals this year will be approximately $35,000.  

OVC Children playing on the Sanctuary Land after receiving a soup kitchen meal.

We are grateful and honoured to be a part of this continuing process of community development in Drimiopsis Namibia, a process that started with one woman opening her heart, joined by another, and now, by many others. Thank you for contributing to putting love into action in these ways! You are helping transform lives!

“Thank you donors for your love…..”. Poster created and displayed by Deon Kous.