By Philippe Talavera | Director
As you know, the Ombetja Yehinga Organisation (OYO) is a Namibian NGO that uses Arts to create social awareness. The last few months have been very challenging for us.
As you all know by now, while we don’t have direct funding from USAID, two of the grants were with Institutions/ Foundations that receive USAID money. That made us a sub-sub recipient. And with one of the first executive orders signed by Trump, those grants came to a standstill overnight, and then got cancelled. They represented 60% of our budget. This put us in an extremely difficult situation.
We had to take several drastic measures, including selling a car – while we already have a shortage of transport -, reducing the number of working days for the staff, etc. We also launched a crowdfunding campaign and we would like to thank each and every one of you who answered our call: thanks to your generous support, we haven’t closed yet. It has been difficult, but we have kept on working.
I would like to extend a special thanks to Horizon Trust. Following the termination of two of our projects end January, this was the only partner remaining. Horizon Trust went above and beyond to support us: they approved a change in the timeline of the project, allowing us to spend the funds between January and June instead of spreading them throughout the year, and they approved a second grant to support the dance troupe. Thanks to their support, we have managed not only to keep busy, but to make a difference. We have been able to work in schools in Windhoek, Okahandja, Gobabis and Rehoboth, supporting learners at risk of dropping out of school and we have organized the third ||Kharas Youth Performing Arts Festival with 73 young people.
We also managed to secure additional small grants from Mercury Phoenix Trust, STAFE (French Consulate in South Africa) and Valentine Trust. Those grants could not have been timelier. Many partners – old and new – have also approached us to encourage to apply to various calls. Most of them are to start implementation in September 2025 or January 2026, should we be successful. We are again most thankful to everybody who has extended a hand. We hope those proposals will come back positively.
I would like to give a special word of thanks to the OYO staff. Throughout this difficult period, despite cuts in salaries, they all remained committed to the work we do. Only two staff resigned. The rest shouldered up and worked extremely hard to make a difference in the lives of young people, despite the challenges and the lack of funding. We have an amazing team, and I wish donors could see their commitment. They don’t deserve any of what happened this year.
We are not yet safe. June, July and August will be very difficult months. We have proposed a couple of small projects for those months – and await anxiously about the results. Meanwhile, while we can’t ask you to contribute to our work again, we would like to ask you to please put in a good word for us with friends and families. If anybody could still support our crowdfunding efforts, we would dearly appreciate.
Our link are still: https://www.globalgiving.org/projects/using-arts-educate-4000-namibian-teenagers-on-hiv
https://www.globalgiving.org/projects/help-oyo-buy-a-new-car
If you have any friends who may be able to support us, please do share the link. We greatly appreciate all the support we can get, no matter how big or small.
With many thanks
The OYO team
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