Mariental: Two members of the Taradi! Hana Xabadi organisation conducted a workshop on Wednesday at Mariental, equipping 29 unemployed women from their community with the skills to produce ‘Namaseep’, a handmade soap.
According to Namibia Press Agency, the Taradi! Hana Xabadi organisation is a grassroots initiative from the Hardap Region, comprising 45 women who were trained by the Ministry of Agriculture, Water and Forestry in backyard gardening. Following this training, they established their organisation in 2022 with the aim of training community members in backyard gardening.
Two of the members, Maria Skrywer and Paulina Gowases, received additional training from Rise Namibia, a non-governmental organisation that supports the development of sustainable organisations and human resource capacity through training and mentorship, on how to make handmade soap.
Gowases told Nampa in an interview that the purpose of the workshop was to share their knowledge with fellow women and empower them. “Today we trained the ladies from our community on how to make Namaseep and this is our first training. We want to empower women from our community so they can make their own Namaseep and sell it to make an income for themselves, as soap is not only a basic necessity, but also a potential source of income for many women in the region who have limited access to employment,” stated Gowases.
Skrywer told this news agency Rise Namibia sponsored the resources for the workshop. “Rise Namibia sponsored us with resources such as seeds, baking soda and other materials we needed for the workshop,” Skrywer said.