Members of the Shack Dwellers Federation of Namibia (SDFN) at Otjiwarongo on Wednesday received 40 bags of cement for the construction of manholes on land allocated to them.
The cement, worth more N.dollars 2 000, was donated by the Cheetah Cement factory and Hendrina Neumbo, Otjiwarongo Constituency Councillor Julius Neumbo’s wife.
Minister of Education, Arts and Culture Katrina Hanse-Himarwa also donated N.dollars 1 000 to the group, which will be used to buy 12 bags of cement.
The cement will be used to construct 37 manholes.
The chairperson of the federation at Otjiwarongo, Erenst Muraranganda told Nampa members have laid pipes for the supply of water to the area.
“In September 2017, we also started constructing manholes at the site, and completed 14 of them last month,” he said.
The area allocated the group is situated north of the Tsaraxa-Aibes Primary School and comprises 65 residential plots measuring between 345 and 600 square metres.
The group intends to build 65 one-bedroom houses on the land, starting this year.
The federation acquired the unserviced land from the municipality in January 2017 at a cost of N.dollars 10 per square metre.
The branch was founded in 2011 and has grown to nearly 1 500 members, the majority of whom are unemployed women.
Muraranganda praised the federation for its determination to provide decent and affordable houses to its members without discriminating against them.
The Otjiwarongo branch members are aged between 19 and 86 years and includes 10 people with disabilities.
The members make the bricks and construct their houses themselves.