Omba Arts Trust is a social enterprise working in Namibia since the early 1990’s with 400 rural artisans in 9 regions of the country. In particular we support San living on resettlements, most of whom depend almost entirely on the income they receive from their crafts or art. The majority of Omba artisans are women, and many are single heads of households. Besides developing and marketing their iconic crafts, we are also addressing food and resource security with water-wise homestead gardens and award-winning tree-planting projects.
In 30 years, we have survived many ups and downs and somehow managed to pull through… nothing, but nothing prepared us for 2020 and 2021 – and the ongoing fall-out of Covid.
Supported by the resolve of Omba’s staff, our commitment to our artisans and the 30-year investment in this important Namibian social enterprise – we stood up and faced the challenges. I am glad to report that we have achieved all our goals thus far!
We could not have done this without the help of so many friends, local corporates and NGOs that have responded to our appeals.
Some wonderful gestures
A local film maker and friend from the USA responded immediately when we reached out in a panic, and the video ‘Watering the Tree, a Namibian Covid Story’ was launched last year.
A group of friends from Denmark with ties to Namibia (around Independence) rallied together and sent us a donation as did another friend from Norway.
Old friends from the USA jumped in immediately to support us.
A total stranger arranged for the refund of an air ticket that she had to cancel, to be re-directed to us.
A neighbour’s friends from Australia, who loves our work, responded generously.
Local Namibian friends were quick to give us support.
Strangers from the UK and Europe reached out with donations, ideas and connections to galleries and magazines.
An architect friend offered us space in her practice from where we could operate at a discounted rental rate.
A HUGE thank you to all of you – you kept the light of hope going during these past dark months.
Our local corporate and NGO community have also stood by our side – not easy given the great need in Namibia at this time. A huge thank you and much appreciation to:
° First Rand Foundation (FNB)
° National Arts Council of Namibia
° Twin Hills Trust Namibia
° Palms for Life
° Namibia Chamber of Environment
° Community Conservation Fund of Namibia
° Pupkewitz Foundation
With this funding we have had a very busy year! Below is a summary of what we were able to do with our donor support.
Support to our artisans
We have delivered much-needed food parcels to more than 125 San artisans in the Kalahari and in the north near the Angola border. Winter is the ‘time of hunger’ and colleagues, who organized the food delivery, shared heart-rending stories about their circumstances. ´` They were not their cheerful selves,´` they reported, ``´` there was a sad sense of defeat.´`
Our appreciation goes to Twin Hills Trust Namibia for their support in 2021.
Getting our hands dirty
We have continued to pursue the homestead gardens with the Ju/’hoansi women in the Kalahari – although there are challenges around water supply. Thanks to your donations, women were able to attend a compost-making workshop in Windhoek and are busy preparing for the summer crop. We are thrilled to see the progress they have made – and to hear that they are now training other people from their community on how to make compost.
Covid support
We have kept in touch with every group and continue to support individuals in need. Last year we delivered Tippy Taps and hand sanitizer to San groups and this year masks and hand sanitizer were sent to basket weavers.
Keeping orders alive
The Community Conservation Fund of Namibia provided Omba with a grant to purchase craft from every individual artisan we work with for five months. As you can imagine this has generated a lot of joy from our artisans! Thank you CCFN!
Namibia Chamber of Environment recognized that we could not get into the field to continue our palm and dye tree garden surveys and do further training due to Covid lock-downs country-wide. We have been able to keep incomes going to our weavers through purchase orders instead. Thank you, NCE!
A new look and a new direction
It was time for Omba to make a change and thanks to a grant from the National Arts Council of Namibia we have rebranded Omba and are in the process of completing a new-look, more product-focused website.
Welcoming a new member of staff
With our new focus on export, we were totally under-resourced to manage sales and marketing, especially online and social media marketing. Thank you to Twin Hills Trust Namibia who have supported the appointment of a new Sales and Marketing Manager, Veronika Nakanuku. Our export orders are already increasing, and we qualified as a regional finalist with a Trade Fair Pitch for the Southern African-German Chamber of Commerce and Industry and GIZ – out of over 80 applicants.
New products
We are busy developing new products more suited to the international market and are excited about the prospect of a new textile range we are developing with San artists. Thank you to Palms of Life for their grant that has made this possible.
Keeping Omba alive
Of course, none of the above would be possible without financing to pay staff and our overheads. Whilst we have had to take some VERY stringent cost-cutting measures, our income from sales these past 16 months has just been insufficient. Thank you to the First Rand Foundation for their support in 2020 and a huge thanks to the Pupkewitz Foundation for understanding our predicament in 2021 – and making such a quick grant available to us recently. Without your support we would have had a very uncertain future.
Going forward
Like everyone else, we simply do not know what the future looks like. But rest assured – we will continue our resolve to keep the fires burning.
We will also keep our Covid Artisan Fund campaign going to continue our support to our artisans. Please keep the donations coming!
With thanks to all of you for your support – thank you to Omba’s amazing staff – and last but not least a big thanks to our artisans.
From Karin le Roux, Director and all at Omba.
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Sd TW.
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