Shack Dwellers Federation of Namibia

Short update from the community members working on the data collection and entry .   My name is Rosalia Haiduwa, I was born in Gobabis on the 17 th  of June 1997 in freedom square. My parents lived here for 27 years. So I have a little bit of a story to share to the world about Freedom Square how we worked together as one team. The process started with the numbering of houses, giving numbers to structures. After we finished giving numbers, we divided ourselves into groups to start with the enumeration process, walking from house to house to collect information about people living there. So as soon as we were done with the survey, we started doing data entry, putting information that we collected into computers. After doing all the data entry we started verifying the information that we entered in computers to see if they are correct. As we were done , we started with map work. Map work was challenging to people that did not understand. We...

Community Members identifying new relocation sites   Freedom Square informal settlement residents are preparing to register their land rights as part of the Flexible Land Tenure system using the  Social Tenure Domain Model . The different components of the act was explained to the community by Mr Peter Rutsch (download copy  Flexible Land Tenure Act, Act 4 of 2012 ) , explaining the differences between starter tile and Land-hold Title .  Freedom square residents have been residing in the settlement for more than 15 years without any security of tenure, facing possible evictions from the municipality. Through partnership and community enumerations, the Gobabis municipality reconsidered the planning decisions on relocation's . The planning for the area was done through the Association of African Planning( AAPS ) studio's with Town and Regional Planning Students from the polytechnic of Namibia and the community on the design of the settlement which was ...

The Shack Dwellers Federation of Namibia(SDFN) National Facilitator Ms Edith Mbanga  gave a presentation to 2 nd and 3 rd year land management students at the polytechnic of Namibia on the SDFN’s link to the Flexible land Tenure Act , Act no 4 of 2012. Educating future professionals on the community’s process and creating a platform for the students to engage the SDFN directly. The lecture was proposed by Professor Wolfgang Werner. Ms Mbanga informed the students : The Flexible Land Tenure Act, Act 4 of 2012 was initiated a long way after the Shack Dwellers of Namibia (SDFN) saving groups started organising themselves in 1987. The SDFN was consulted on the act before it was finalized. The act was only passed in parliament in November 2012; currently regulations are being formulated spearheaded by the Ministry of Land and Resettlement. Background The SDFN has 19 540 in 14 Regions with 602 saving groups. The Groups have a total of N$16 999 112.28 from their daily saving...