Hardap Governor, Reverend Salomon April on Monday handed over two houses that are currently being built to two elderly women aged 103 and 105 at Gibeon village.

The two houses are part of the Hardap governor’s office’s social programme, an initiative aimed at celebrating the elderly for their contribution towards the independence of Namibia and restoring their dignity.

“I believe that we had elderly who fought for the country’s independence, we are here to celebrate ages above 100 years. We are trying to demonstrate appreciation for the most senior among the seniors, these are the people who know where we were and what brought us here and we can learn from them. We are trying to restore our seniors’ human dignity,” said the governor.

April said his office will continue building houses for those that are above the age of 100 in all the constituencies in the region.

The governor called on business people and individuals to assist his office in building the houses. The houses at Gibeon are being built with the assistance of Henry Jongwe of Henimma Investment.

The houses consist of one bedroom, a toilet and kitchen valued between N.dollars 50 000 and N.dollars 60 000.

Speaking to the media here one of the beneficiaries, 103-year-old ouma Hulda Isaack extended a word of gratitude towards the governor.

“I never thought I will own a brick house in my life, I waited for so long, many people promised to build me a house but it never happened, thank you very much governor and may God bless you,” she said.

The house of the 105-year-old ouma Mina Goeieman will be given to the family as she passed on in recent weeks.

In the same vein the governor also handed over a shack and six goats to a family of 12 at farm Condense some 15 kilometres outside Asab. The family has for years been staying in a shelter made of different materials, mostly pieces of cloth.

According to April he learned of the situation of the family through a community meeting he attended at Asab.

“The community members were the ones that alerted me of this situation, that this family is living in some structure they cannot even walk into but have to crawl into. My office with the help of the community members and business people put this together for the family,” said April.

Jacobus Boois extended his heartfelt gratitude towards those that made the donation to his family.

“We moved here years ago, the owner of this place was good to us and he allowed us to stay here, we had some goats but some died and some were stolen, now we have only one, we’re thankful for this structure and the goats. This is a good place as it has water and that is good for the goats.”

Boois stays with his wife, six children, all who are unemployed, and four grandchildren. The family survives on the pension of Boois and his wife.

Source: Namibia Press Agency