The Bravo community in Kavango West's Mpungu Constituency is celebrating the opening of a new Early Childhood Development Centre designed to improve the lives of children from previously disadvantaged backgrounds in the area.

Constructed by the Palm for Life Fund, this project includes two classrooms, an office, and an ablution facility, with a total estimated cost exceeding five million dollars.

In a speech read by Joseph Sikongo on behalf of the Deputy Minister for Marginalised Communities, the Kavango West Regional Chairperson emphasized the significance of the ECD Centre to the Bravo community. 

"Constructed and equipped at a total cost of N$5.3 million, this high-quality facility reaffirms the value the ministry places on early childhood development as a vehicle for the sustainable empowerment of indigenous minorities."

The Palm for Life Fund, in collaboration with the Ministry of Gender Equality, Poverty Eradication, and Social Welfare, has built other ECD centres in various regions.

"Through strategic partnerships, the ministry, with support from the Palm for Life Fund, has constructed eight ECD centres in the Omaheke, Otjozondjupa, Oshikoto, and Omusati regions since the partnership began in 2019."

While expressing appreciation for the new infrastructure, Titus Shiudifonya, constituency councillor for Mpungu, highlighted the need for a hostel to reduce travel distances for children attending school, as well as a health facility for the Bravo community.

"The most important thing I would ask of our government is to consider upgrading the hostel. Currently, children have to travel to either Tsitsabes or Mpungu, which is over 100 kilometres away. This distance poses a challenge, especially since there is no clinic in the area to care for these individuals. Therefore, I urge the Ministry of Health and Social Services to provide a nurse who can reside here and take care of the community's health needs."

Bravo resident David Mambo encouraged the younger generation to take ownership of the centre and fully utilize the opportunities available to them that their parents did not have.

"You have brought this centre to us, and it will benefit our children greatly. They will have the chance to succeed where we, as elders, did not."