Rudi Bowe
Namibia Red Cross Society (NRCS) on Monday, 26 October launched the NRCS Humanitarian Aid Project (HAP) to the value of one million eight hundred thousand Namibia Dollars.
HAP is to provide livelihood support and reduce the impact of Covid-19 on hard-hit communities for a peri-od of three months through cash transfers for vulnerable house-holds in Walvis Bay.
The Deputy Minister of Gender Equality, Poverty Eradication and Social Welfare Bernadette Maria Jagger said at the event with the support of the Office of the Governor, the Office of the Mayor, the Ministry of Health and Social Services, the Ministry of Gender Equality, Poverty Eradication and Social Welfare and the Walvis Bay Urban and Rural Constituency Offices, 1200 vulnerable households were selected and that they will each receive a total of N$1500 per month per household for the next three months (October to December).
“All lists of vulnerable households received from the various stakeholders, will be validated and asses-sed individually against Red Cross approved criteria and by a team made up of various stakeholders in order to ensure utmost transparency in the selection of the benefitting households”Jagger said.
Jagger added “In consultation with the local Municipality, the NRCS and its partner, the International Federation of Red Cross and as a Humanitarian Organisation, has the obligation to meet the Government efforts half way by assisting the fire victims of Otwya resettlement Walvis Bay in providing them with material support such as temporary shelter, food and also health packs.”
Jagger said that the Inter-national Federation of the Red Cross Disaster Relief Emergency Fund (DREF) will be distributing hygiene packs to the value of N$252 000 to 154 vulnerable individuals Otwya resettlement.
“The lack of media attention and visibility in cases of disaster, small, medium or large scale, could mean that international appeals for funding are not forth-coming to support and response, therefore it is believed that without external assistance, people affected by these small, medium and large-scale emergencies, are often pushed into vulnerability that is deepened by each subsequent disaster, eroding their resilience and coping capacity” Jagger said.