The history
“Katutura” – The place where people do not want to live. This is how the Herero named the township on the outskirts of Namibia’s capital city Windhoek, to where the black population was relocated during the apartheid. Until today it bears witness to a deep-rooted problem – the inequality of opportunity due to family income. The “Katutura Projects” originated from the wish of the nurse and later director of the Namibian Red Cross, Jutta Rohwer, to offer children a brighter future and to “create a slightly friendlier world. ” With this great goal in mind, she founded and supported more and more small and large projects in Namibia, focusing on education and “self-help”-oriented aid. Since Jutta Rohwer’s death, her daughter Anja Rohwer, together with her family and many hard-working helpers, is ensuring the continued existence of the projects on site in Namibia.
The commitment
The “Katutura Projects” are involved in a variety of projects in the capital city Windhoek and the coastal town Swakopmund. A good education is essential for finding a way out of poverty. Following this belief, the charity organisation supports children from an early age on by running and taking care of an orphanage and several kindergartens, in which the children are being prepared for later schooling. But education alone is not enough: hunger and malnutrition are a serious problem in the informal settlements of Namibia. Therefore, “Katutura Projekte” also maintains soup kitchens that provide regular and healthy meals. In addition to education, a further focus of the “Katutura Projects” is self-help, especially for single women. In various projects, the women learn and produce handicrafts, which are then sold in selected shops. The proceeds are given back to the women, who thus have the chance to earn their own regular income.
