The group is a recent initiative set up by Wienda Van Wyk in an attempt to give something back to her community and comprises of 33 members, all female. Each member donates N$100 to the charity each month and the accumulated money is then used to buy food and clothing for a vulnerable member of the Lüderitz community.

“Last month we were able to donate food to two of our elderly people” says an energetic Van Wyk, “we’re now collecting for Februarys donation and we’re also looking at doing a town clean up to get rid of all this litter that’s lying about”.

It is refreshing to see a group of this nature, particularly an all women group, forming within Lüderitz, keep up the good work.

The Succulent Karoo Ecosystem Program (SKEP) was initiated in 2001 in an effort to help preserve the natural beauty along the Western coast of Southern Africa. Since then the program has set itself a target to protect 135 species of plant and numerous globally threatened animal species by the year 2021. SKEP is hosted by the Namibia Nature Foundation (NNF) with Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund, the government of Japan, Macarthur Foundation and the World Bank.

What is SKEP doing?

SKEP has recently launched a new awareness campaign, linked directly with the opening of the Sperrgebiet National Park which encompasses several different activities and projects based along the Lüderitz coastline. This includes:

• Developing a tourist information system and tour guide service in Aus

• Surveying wild brown hyenas in order to gain a better understanding of the animals habitat and behaviour (research run by Ingrid Wisel)

• Initiating a number of educational environmental awareness projects within schools in Lüderitz and Aus.

Activities include studying animals native to Namibia, visiting areas of specific natural beauty and encouraging care of the natural environment by carrying out various clean up operations.

Luderitz Schools First to Visit Bogenfels

On the 24th of January learners from Diaz Primary School and Helene Van Rhijn Primary School were the first to visit Bogenfels archway as part of a joint-venture between the Namdeb, the Southern Star Cluster schools and funding from SKEP. Learners were there to observe the rehabilitation of the succulents by Namdeb, to learn 5 more about the special plants (endemic) and to start gaining an awareness of the need for conservation of Namibia’s flora and fauna. The first visits will have a total 126 learners over a period of three weekends.

Learners From Brightstart Montessori Help Clean Up Desert

Tuesday the 11th February saw a group of around 40 children aged between 6 and 13 from Brightstart Montessori begin a month long litter pick operation along the road out to Agate Beach. Children were armed with rubber gloves and bin bags and spread out along the dusty roadside, picking up anything from plastic bottles to old tin cans. The two hour session was one of four weekly clean ups carried out throughout February in accordance with the SKEP educational program. Later in the year students will learn about the unique plant and animal life of the Sperrgebiet Park area.

The meeting got off to a slow start as, due to delays, it begins half an hour late. The room was filled with the excited Lüderitz youth. A lot of the youth present are part of the Lüderitz Town Council. Amongst the officials is the mayor of Höör.

The head of the Lüderitz Youth Centre, Mr Scholz, opened the meeting by introducing the Youth Centre staff and explaining the history. He explained that the Youth Centre building was originally occupied by the German school and was built in 1963. In 2005 the Youth Centre officially started working in the building and since then it has been through a number of changes coming with the as the Centre has grown.

After Mr Scholz has spoken the Mayor of Lüderitz, Mrs. Amupewa, explained the reason for the group of officials decision to visit Lüderitz. She explained that she has visited Höör last month in an attempt to connect the Höör community to Lüderitz. The goal is to exchange knowledge and ways of entertaining and educating the youth. The Mayor of Höör then continued the meeting with a brief introduction of Sweden and Scandinavia as a whole. And than we come to the main part of the meeting. It’s time for the youth to ask questions, as after all the goal is to help them, and to do so the delegation needs to know what their problems are.

“What involvement do you want to have?”

We want to investigate what is going on with the youth, what their problems or questions are. And eventually we want to find an answer to other mutual questions. Christol Ulson (sports & leisure official):

“What can we offer that would interest the youth to do something productive? On their own with just a little bit of help from the grown-ups to get them started.”

The community in Höör is also very interested in helping Lüderitz to set up a good functioning social security network. They will also look at the current Lüderitz social security network and see where they can improve on it. The social security network they envision for Lüderitz should be a nongovernmental one, with the families in the centre. I asked the delegation to break down their points in to a simple summary in order to get a clear picture of what the delegation is here for. I discovered that they are here to address 3 main areas:

• Improving life for early childhood

• Creating meaningful leisure activities & explaining how to develop these to the local community.

• Helping in setting up a modern water & sewage plant.

The main advantage of these plants is that natural gasses can be extracted from the sewage and used for electricity or to heat houses during the winter. They cannot guarantee to address all of these points, but these are the points they will focus on for the duration of their visit. The meeting closed with the question

“What does the youth of Lüderitz want or need for leisure?”

Better music facilities, so the youth can develop there artistic skills. Different kinds of dance lessons, not just African dance, but also R&B etc. And one that note the meeting ended with the promise to go on with the discussion the next day.

To make a promotional documentary work it’s very important to think about the locations where it should be featured. Featuring it on the cruise ships heading for Lüderitz, might be very nice for the tourists on that ship, but they are already heading for Lüderitz, whether they see the documentary or not. For that reason it makes more sense to show it on the Namibian local television, maybe even on South African television and to release it as a DVD to the various tourist companies. This is what One Africa is currently offering Lüderitz. A chance to put Lüderitz on the map and raise the awareness of Lüderitz within Namibia. Mr. van Schalkwijk, who will oversee the whole project from One Africa’s site, has previously made documentaries for Discovery, National Geographic and he made a promotional DVD for the Namibian Board of Tourism.

The Funding

Obviously a company such as One Africa is not a charity. This means the Lüderitz community needs to invest in this matter. It certainly is an opportunity to raise the awareness of Lüderitz and to create a bigger tourist flow, but it can only be realized if the Lüderitz businesses are prepared to invest.