Mainstream Foundation introduces agri-farming for children with disabilities

Mainstream Foundation, an organisation dedicated to catering to the needs of children with disabilities in the Zambezi Region, introduced their latest project, an agri-farming production to generate income.

Tabo agri-farming production, as it’s known, is a one-hectare garden located in Chefuzwe outside Katima Mulilo, which recently received financial assistance of over one point three million Namibian dollars from Gem Diamond Namibia as well as the Social Security Commission to assist with the provision of solar panels, the construction of a borehole, fencing material, and a storage facility on the site.

Sylvia Chidunka, the founder and director of Mainstream Foundation, said that the garden will operate as an income-generating project to assist with the running of the foundation, which includes a school for children with disabilities that has been struggling with finances for years.

“With this project, my governor, we are trying to ensure that at the end of the day we can get the salaries of the staff for the school, for the teachers, for the learners, and for those who are going to work here and everyone involved, so we will definitely need the support of the community, together with the donors, and together with the leadership of the Zambezi region.”

Apart from that, she added that it will also sustain the school’s current lunch programme for enrolled learners.

The governor of the Zambezi Region, Alufea Sampofu, who is also the Mainstream Foundation patron, was present at the occasion.

“We are pleading and calling upon our parents with people or children with disabilities to bring them forth to the mainstream foundation for proper care and education.”

Sampofu applauded the foundation’s contribution towards regional development and asked locals to give support by purchasing fresh produce to help grow and sustain the foundation.

“We also urge the mainstream foundations that are proving themselves capable of producing whatever we see here and many more to come.”

The garden, which currently grows vegetables including spinach, onions, eggplants, and tomatoes, among others, is expecting its first harvest of cabbage heads in a week’s time.