Educate 40000 Namibian teenagers on HIV using Arts

Dear friends of OYO

As you know, the Ombetja Yehinga Organisation (OYO) is a Namibian NGO that uses Arts to create social awareness. 2025 had been very challenging for OYO: we lost two grants, we had to cut salaries by 40%, etc.  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. 

But, on the positive side, many organisations, institutions, embassies and private friends of OYO mobilized themselves to help us, and it worked. This year, we have managed to secure many grants and resumed at 100% of our capacity. 

• Stichtung Hulp voor Jeugdiden for work with young people in Gobabis.
• Finnish Embassy for our project 'Hear me' on disabilities.
• Goethe Institute for work on cultural heritage
• Interteam for our project to address teenage pregnancy in the Kavango East and West regions.
• Horizon for our project ‘growing strong in the ||Kharas region’
• The Embassy of Switzerland in South Africa to address GBV in Rehoboth
• The Embassy of Germany for a large project on GBV in the Omusati, Hardap and Erongo regions
• The French Embassy for the production of three seasons of dance

Thanks to those projects, we are returning to schools and will visit nine of Namibia’s 14 regions in 2026. This is an achievement we are extremely proud of. Many, many thanks to all our partners for supporting us and seeing the value in our work. 

Of course, we are still vulnerable. We haven’t managed the difficult task to become sustainable, and last year was a stark reminder that we are fragile. We have a dire shortage of transport, and sadly transport is very expensive in Namibia (even more so since petrol cost has increased early April). We have old computers that are in need of being replaced. But we are still committed to try and make a difference. 

If you receive this report, it is because you have supported us and we truly thank you. We can’t ask you to contribute to our work again, but 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

Links:

• OYO website
• OYO's Facebook page