Staff Reporter
THE Drought Relief Programme, which entails food distribution to the most marginalized households in the country, will benefit a total of 4,832 households from 38 farms in the Khomas region.
This was stated by Laura Mcleod-Katjirua, the Khomas Regional Governor, at the launch of the drought relief programme this week at Farm Baumgartbrunn in the Khomas region.
“Fellow Khomas inhabitants, I was reliably informed that due to the pressure of the situation at hand, this distribution started on the 12th of October 2023, and the official commissioning was scheduled for today to give an official blessing to the operation to continue. The total number of households counted and registered in the Khomas region to benefit stands at 4,832, in the total of 38 farms in the region,” Mcleod-Katjirua said.
The governor stated that the drought relief programme is aimed at promoting sustainable rural livelihoods and building resilience of communities and individuals to drought.
“While aimed at mitigating drought, these programmes also ensure the sustainable use of natural resources, poverty reduction, and ensure food security at the household level. Therefore, the main objective of this drought relief programme is for these reasons that we hear about the much-talked-about government mitigating interventions, such as the food relief distribution, water provision, livestock marketing support, subsidies on the lease of grazing, subsidies on fodder, and transport,” Mcleod-Katjirua said.
She, however, added that currently, the stock of fish tins is insufficient and therefore will only be distributed to remote areas and areas with a smaller population of beneficiaries for the kick-off of the drought relief program.
The governor further reported that challenges faced in the drought relief programme include the selling of drought relief food and people living in the same house forcing to register as individuals while the programme is targeting households.
In addition to this, she added that another challenge is people residing in urban areas registered for food, using representatives in rural areas to receive food parcels and transporting such parcels to the city. “These are true incidences happening here at Baugardbrunn and must stop with immediate effect. We must jointly guard against any elements which might defeat the purpose of this food relief programme because it will be detrimental to the poorest of the poor, the people who are extremely in need and highly depend on this assistance,” McLeod-Kajirua said.
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