Our Team
Our Founders
In 2003, Patricia Sola and John Mafukidze began cooking food out of their home and bringing it out to the children in need in Okahandja Park informal settlement. To start with, they fed around 30 children, but the number grew fast. They found a shack to use as their base and were quickly running a soup kitchen serving 150 children a day. In December of 2014, they registered as an Association Not For Gain (Section 21) with the name of Hope Initiatives Southern Africa – Namibia.
Most of the people who came for food were orphans and vulnerable children, and they faced other serious challenges in addition to hunger, such as trauma, abuse, neglect, limited access to education, and minimal healthcare provision. In its second year, the center in Okahandja Park started running community-based intervention programs catered toward children as well as their caregivers. Since then, HISA has expanded to run multiple programs. HISA initiated the construction of the first brick building in Okahandja Park, and a center was constructed under Hand In Hand for Children German.
HISA has helped thousands of young people through sponsorship, education, birth registrations with the Ministry of Home Affairs, and nutrition initiatives, which are centered on training and sustainable development, such as teaching parents to grow vegetables and bringing children back into state education. Today, HISA operates from its center in the Kilimandjaro informal settlement. HISA’s programs benefit hundreds of children and young people as well as their caregivers.
Our Staff
Our Partners
We are so grateful to our generous partners who are strengthening children and communities through their support.
Contact Us
We are grateful for your support!
Donate
We gladly accept monetary and in-kind donations. Donations can be made by cash, check, or direct deposit. Please contact us at admin@hisanamibia.org for more information. We also accept in-kind donations year round toward our programs. Our most-needed items include:
- Children’s books and textbooks
- Office supplies (ink cartridges)
- School and craft supplies
- Lightly-used clothing and shoes
- Non-perishable food donations (peanut butter, beans, cooking oil, sugar)
- Meat and tinned fish
Please view our Wish List for our larger, more urgent needs here.
Volunteer
Come join our HISA family! We offer many ways to get involved:
- Reading and homework supervision
- Life skills and youth empowerment speakers
- Mentoring
- Social work
- Health checks and trainings
- Transportation to Home Affairs to obtain birth registrations
Please contact Mrs. Patricia at patricia@hisanamibia.org for more for more information on being a volunteer.
Visit Us
Hope Initiatives Southern Africa
ERF 3316 Omuvapu Street
Kilimandjaro, Windhoek
+264 61 247 454
admin@hisanamibia.org
For over 14 years, HISA has been empowering children and communities through education, food and nourishment, and capacity building. We aim to break the cycle of poverty and build resilience.
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Our Partners
Education
Early Childhood Education and Care Bridging School and Life…
Join Us
Together, we can bring dignity to the most vulnerable.
Our programs impact hundreds of children and their caregivers, and we rely on the generosity of our supporters to keep them going. There are many ways to get involved – we invite you to join us in strengthening our children and our communities.
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