By:Annakleta Haikera
The Kavango West Regional Council on Monday received a donation of 4,000 bags of maize meals from renowned businessman Winnie Merzerger, of Metzger Drilling, at Musese Green Scheme in the Kavango West region.
The maize meal bags are valued at N$320,000 and will benefit critically drought-stricken households in all eight constituencies of the region.
Villagers from around the Musese area applauded Metzeger for the donation, stating that this is what all businessmen and women should do to plough back to the community.
One villager Martha Haingura said this year is very difficult since there was little rainfall in the region.
“Many of our crops died in the field and we didn’t have enough harvest,” she said.
Haingura said people only had citron melons (matangas) this year. “But we also need a maize meal to allow you to prepare it. As you can see, it’s very dry. But the donated maize meal will save us from hunger.”
A farmer who harvested maize meal and Kashana millet said the situation is dire. “Even if we could have received rain in March we were at the tail end of the growing season,” he said.
Winnie Metzeger told The Villager that residents in the area are “buying our maize meals and we can indeed see that people are really hungry, so we thought of assisting with the first week or two by giving 4,000 bags of 10kg maize meals to the residents surrounding this area.”
Metzeger added that this is to keep them away from starvation as the beneficiaries were identified by the Regional Council.
“This was possible because our customers are selling our maize meals products and have been making profit. Musese Green Scheme is functioning very well, and we had a good harvest this year, and we had to plough back. At the end we all want to eliminate poverty,”he said.
The Kavango West Regional Council Chairperson Joseph Sivaku applauded the gesture and urged other farmers and business people in the region to follow suit and assist the needy.
“This is our fourth visit to one of the green schemes in the region. We always encourage the green schemes to produce food, and we’re here to give a positive response, ” Sivaku said.
According to him, people are starving daily.
“There are people that are sleeping hungry every day because these people have no food to eat. As we all know, if you don’t eat you won’t be able to sleep.”
The donation was given after the Regional Council pleaded with the business community in the region to meet the government halfway while they await the Office of the Prime Minister’s national emergency drought relief food assistance.
With the region grappling with food scarcity and dwindling water resources, this donation is aimed at alleviating the suffering of vulnerable communities.