By Wezi Tjaronda
WINDHOEK
The Otjimanangombe community will get a clinic thanks to fund-raising efforts of the Catherine Bullen Memorial Fund.
The clinic, to cost around N$1 million, will be constructed near the Omuhaturua Primary School in the Epukiro Constituency.
The clinic will serve a number of communities such as Eiseb, Otjinene and Epukiro, which are 170 km, 60 km and 150 km away respectively.
On Sunday, representatives of different ministries, traditional authorities, school principals, among others, gathered at Omuhaturua to witness a ground breaking ceremony of the clinic that will serve the Otjimanangombe, Otumbonde, Otjimati, Okatuo, Ovinjuru, Okatumba, Eiseb and Ovitua communities.
Norbert Iyambo, Omaheke Control Registered Nurse, said the clinic would offer treatment for common, chronic and communicable diseases and would offer child and maternal care, nutrition and family planning services, and also conduct emergency deliveries.
Epukiro Constituency Councillor Brave Tjizera was elated that the community at last would get a clinic. He said it was going to be disastrous for the community not to get a clinic that they had long been waiting for.
“The clinic is a dream come true. Since I was elected people have been talking about the clinic,” Tjizera added.
The Catherine Bullen Memorial Fund was established in memory of Catherine Bullen, a fifth-year medical student studying at Bristol University from West Mersea, United Kingdom, who died while on safari in Namibia prior to placement in hospitals in Zambia and Tanzania.
The relationship between the fund and the community started in 2004 when Komeho Namibia contacted the British High Commission in Windhoek to investigate possible sources of funding to provide fresh water to the Omuhaturua School.
The Catherine Bullen Memorial Fund agreed to provide funding to cover three quarters of the total costs for the borehole. The fund was asked to help fundraise for a clinic during the handover of the refurbished boreholes in 2004.
Catherine Bullen’s parents Roger and Linda Bullen, who attended the groundbreaking ceremony, said the fund looked at the improvement that the clinic would bring to the community. Roger Bullen is chairman of the fund.
He said the fund would also raise money to buy a 4×4 ambulance for the clinic.
Bullen said he hoped the clinic would save lives of people on behalf of their daughter.
Komeho Namibia was formed by ex-Oxfam Canada staff, who have experience in administering large and small projects as well as in conducting participatory rural appraisals.