ONGWEDIVA – In its quest to integrate San children into the mainstream and ensure every Namibian child has access to education, the Ohangwena region has, during the 2019/2020 financial year, registered 118 San learners for school.
San learners, originating from various constituencies in Ohangwena, were enrolled at Tobias Hainyeko Combined School in Okongo.
The programme is intended to empower marginalised San community members to take charge of their lives and ensure they are not left behind. 
Governor Walde Ndevashiya, in his maiden state of the region’s address on Tuesday, said despite current efforts, there is a need to re-evaluate the San’s needs to ensure such needs are on par with their interests.

“We need to go back to the drawing board to evaluate the strategies used to integrate San communities in order to determine whether some strategies are aligned with their interests and are in line with their cultural beliefs and practices as the results seems to be moving at a snail’s pace and is less promising,” stated Ndevashiya.
Some of the initiatives include making the San self-sufficient in food production.

According to Ndevashiya, during the last planting season, 48.1 hectares was ploughed for this marginalised community at the government established crop fields at Eendobe, Ekoka, Oshanashiwa and Onamatadiva San settlements, but the harvest was poor despite the good rainfall received.

In addition to the ploughing, farming and household equipment to the tune of over a million were procured to empower the community, but the governor says the input surpassed output.
“To this end, the input have surpassed the output, with very little tangible results; hence, a lot still need to be done,” said Ndevashiya.
Equally, the division for marginalised communities continues to ensure the San also benefit from free government social grants.
The division also ensures the San benefit from government paid temporary jobs such as the Electoral Commission of Namibia (ECN) and the malaria spray campaign by officials from the ministry of health.
– nashipala@nepc.com.na