The US embassy in Windhoek this week honoured members of
the broadcast media, radio reporters and producers from Namibian public radio
stations – NBC, Base FM, Live FM and UNAM Radio – who participated in the
Internews training programme held in the capital last year. The programme aimed
at providing a deeper and broader training to Namibian radio reporters, [...]

Namibia deserves to be complimented for progress in combating the
HIV/AIDS epidemic, but much still needs to be done, a senior US official told
the Economist this week. Speaking via teleconferencing from Washington DC, Dr
Thomas Kenyon, the principal deputy coordinator of the USA’s President’s
Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (Pepfar), said he is “very impressed by
government’s response to [...]

Newly revised figures on the
HIV/AIDS epidemic show a global stabilisation in prevalence rates. There are
declines in some regions and a reduction in the number of new infections, all of
which are attributed, in part, to a reduction in risky behaviours.
In total the estimated number of people living with HIV/AIDS
worldwide stands at 33.2 million compared to 39.5 [...]

MTC this week
launched a foundation, which will serve as its platform to affirm its social
responsibility and connect with communities by offering them opportunities in
life. Steve Motinga, the MTC Foundation’s Chairman, and Miguel Geraldes, MTC’s
Managing Director.
Miguel Geraldes, MTC’s Managing Director, said the MTC Foundation
will afford the company with an opportunity to look at innovative ways of
fulfilling [...]

Despite a new US
ambassador having been dispatched to Namibia, the Ambassador’s Special Self-Help
Programme – which began in 1990 – is still being pushed forward with so much
zeal.
Since its inception, the US government has given more than N$18
million Self-Help grants to small development projects in the country. This
year, 36 Self-Help grantees will share a total of [...]

Wilderness Safaris has
closed off its luxurious Desert Rhino Camp in the Palmwag concession area to
accommodate a bunch of 48 non-paying children. Maggie von Rhein, the head of
business banking at Nedbank, with Sarah Omura, the project coordinator for
Wilderness Safaris’ Children in the Wilderness programme.
The children are taking part in the Children in the Wilderness
programme, an initiative [...]

The Health Professions Council of
Namibia says it is extremely worried about the misleading tendencies of
unlicensed traditional healers who advertise for their services in the
electronic and print media. Assistant Registrar Cornelius Weyulu told the
Economist this week that the council believes in proven scientific research on
all medicines, but traditional healers are yet to be regulated, thereby causing
great [...]

The
Children in the Wilderness organisation has changed venues for the first time.
It will now host 32 disadvantaged children at the Hoanib River Camp, described
as a new and exciting venue, from 29 May to 11 June. The programme hosts
disadvantaged children at Wilderness Safaris camps with the aim of getting them
to interpret and appreciate their environment. No [...]

The
existence of a significant human trafficking problem in Namibia is suspected,
but remains unsubstantiated by sufficient reliable reporting, according to the
2008 Trafficking in Persons Report (TIP) released in Washington D.C, this week.
The report said the Ministry of Labour and Social Welfare’s commissioning of a
study on child labour demonstrates the government’s increasing awareness of and
interest in the [...]

Standard Bank
joined the New York-based Global Business Coalition (GBC) on HIV/AIDS,
Tuberculosis and Malaria in 2006, which is an alliance of over 220 companies
dedicated to combating these diseases on an international platform. The member
companies share information and experience on best-practice workplace
programmes, on new medical management approaches and HIV-related business
strategies, and on how different nations and regions [...]