Industrial Mill Services (TMS) donated specialised wheelchairs to Tsumeb-based Hope Home-Based Health Care, which has been taking care of people with disabilities since 2016.

All 119 of them use wheelchairs, while children with muscular disorders, cerebral palsy, or other conditions require specialised wheelchairs.

The Deputy Minister of Disability Affairs, Alexia Manombe-Ncube, says Namibians should collectively ensure that children are not left out due to their disabilities.

With less potato production in Namibia, the National Youth Service in Rietfontein is proud to produce and sell its first harvest of potatoes to the public.

In 2021, NYS received funding from the Namibia Training Authority, through capacity-building grants, for the institution to carry out its mandate of empowering youth with skills and generating income.

One production owing its existence to the funding is potato production, with potatoes cultivated via a centre pivot irrigation system.

With illegal sand mining activities happening in most parts of the country, the Ministry of Environment, Forestry, and Tourism is training environmental officers in all regions.

They are from the Department of Parks and Forestry.

Although more is expected from the environmental officers, the current pressing matter is that of illegal sand mining, which the ministry is working hard to put an end to.

Currently, Namibia does not have environmental officers, though there are provisions in the Act.

The Grootfontein Municipality says they have on numerous occasions pleaded with residents, businesses, and institutions to engage their finance department and make debt-settling arrangements; calls, the council says, appear to have fallen on deaf ears.

It is against this background that the municipality says it decided to involve an independent debt collector, Redforce Debt Management.

In a media statement, the council responded to the petition submitted last week by residents regarding the appointment of Red Force.

Otjiwarongo-based charity organisation Omake raised N$20,000 at a fundraising dinner in pledges towards the establishment of a safe place for vulnerable children and people with disabilities.

The construction of the centre is estimated to cost more than N$3 million.

The Omake Charity Organisation was founded in 2018 with the vision to establish a stay-in welfare and disability centre that will cater for more than 100 people and a soup kitchen to feed vulnerable children.

Swapo Party's Otjozondjupa Regional Leadership urged the Grootfontein Municipality to immediately stop the execution of the contract with Red Force Debt Management.

The party's regional coordinator, Imms Namaseb, says the party will also address their councillors from the Grootfontein Municipality for non-compliance. 

The Electoral Commission of Namibia's (ECN) Voters' Registration Officers are not trained in sign language to cater for the hearing-impaired population during the registration process.

ECN's Otjozondjupa Regional Voter Education Officer, Beatrice Sililo-Epuka, says it was only the education officers who received basic sign language training.

Sililo-Epuka was speaking at a stakeholder's engagement meeting at Otjiwarongo that was attended by political party representatives from Swapo, LPM, UDF, ministries, churches, and community members.

Otjozondjupa Governor James Uerikua urged the voter registration officials of the Electoral Commission of Namibia (ECN) to uphold the values of the institution. 

Uerikua made the remarks when the ECN officials visited his office, pledging support to the officials to ensure a smooth and successful registration process.

The general registration of voters is scheduled to start from the 3rd of June until the 1st of August.

Visibility equipment to be used by the Namibian Police at high accident zones along the main national road in the Otjozondjupa Region is aimed at curbing road accidents.

A local mobile telecommunications company (MTC) stepped in and donated the reflector jackets, torches, and other goods worth N$63,000 to the Namibian Police.

Road crashes, accompanied by fatalities and injuries, are experienced every other week on the B1 Road.

A Mathematics and Science Clinic for Grade 11 and Advanced Subsidiary Learners at Tsumeb has been revived following its closure during the COVID-19 pandemic.

It was set up in 2016 by the University of Namibia to improve the performance of learners.

Founded by the University of Namibia's School of Engineering and the Built Environment, the Math and Science Clinic is a community outreach initiative driven by the Advance Subsidiary syllabus.