Pinocchio für Afrikas Kinder e.V.

From initial spontaneous fund raising to sustainable development aid

Pinocchio für Afrikas Kinder e.V. advocates the improvement of living conditions of disadvantaged children and their families in Okahandjapark, an area in Katutura in Namibia’s capital Windhoek. The association supports a kindergarten and a soup kitchen. Furthermore, it managed to arrange a familiy sponsorship for some of the children and a school fund was established.

 

It is intended to develop a concept which allows the women in the neighbourhood of the kindergarten to generate their own income by means of a sewing centre.

 

For this purpose the association in Namibia and in Germany raises funds, coordinates relief supplies, finds sponsors, organises charity events. Furthermore, we try to draw the public’s attention to the harsh living conditions of many Namibian children.

 

The history of the association began in autumn 2002 by means of a spontaneous appeal for funds. Birgit Meier-Mundhenke who is the initiator and the chairperson lived in Windhoek, Namibia, at the time and started a fund raising event for Pinnocchio’s soup kitchen together with the daily newspaper "Mindener Tagesblatt" in light of the extensive poverty and the lack of prospects in Okahandjapark. The willingness to donate was enormous and also carried on for the following years. She was actively supported by the other founding members Maggie Lietz and Monika Jürgens. They organised flea markets, collected in-kind donations, they started to coordinate aid transports together with the German military, arranged family sponsorships and much more.

 

In order to convert the enormous readiness to help into the sustainable concept of helping people help themselves everybody involved decided in summer 2005 to found Pinocchio für Afrikas Kinder e.V..

 

Thanks to the soup kitchen the association generates the daily survival of about 100 children. Together with the support of the kindergarten, the family sponsorships and the school fund we arrange for the education of socially disadvantaged children starting at an early age.