What TFWA Care did for... N/a'an ku sê Foundation

The N/a'an ku sê Foundation, set up by Dr Rudie and Marlice van Vuuren and supported by donors including former Salvatore Ferragamo International Director Claudio Frateschi, exists to improve the lives of tribal people and wildlife in a remote part of eastern Namibia. It is partly funded by tourist revenues from a wildlife lodge and so also offers direct employment opportunities to local people.

The Foundation oversees a wildlife sanctuary and carnivore conservation project, while the N/a'an ku sê Lifeline Clinic provides free primary healthcare and an ambulance service to the San community in Epukiro. Without N/a'an ku sê, the San Bushmen would have little or no access to medical advice or treatment.

 

With the support of TFWA Care, the van Vuurens and the volunteers at N/a'an ku sê have been able to develop the Community Health Care Worker Scheme, helping to train village health workers in the basics of health and hygiene. The Lifeline Clinic Doctor also travels to remote communities to help spread awareness of basic treatments.

 

TFWA Care has also enabled the N/a'an ku sê Foundation to begin an ambitious project to better understand the incidence of tuberculosis among the nomadic San people. TB is preventable in the 21st century, yet many people in Namibia, especially in poor and marginalised communities such as the San, still suffer from this disease.

Projects in 2016

The N/a’an ku sê Lifeline Clinic at Epukiro is developing a research programme to help resolve the problem of TB among the San people of the Omaheke region in Namibia. It has become clear that the problem is serious, and exacerbated by poor health awareness. The San have a fifteen-fold increase in TB compared with the rest of the Namibian population. X-ray screening is essential to detect and treat TB among the San, yet the nearest X-ray machine is 140km from the Lifeline Clinic.

 

The support of TFWA Care in 2016 will enable the Lifeline Clinic to purchase a Chest X-ray machine that will ultimately allow the diagnosis of TB in the San villages, avoiding the need to transport patients over long distances. It will increase the number of villages the Clinic can screen and treat, thus changing and saving lives.

Read more about the N/a'an ku sê Foundation