Physical Health Namibia Project #40489

Educate 40000 Namibian teenagers on HIV using Arts

by Ombetja Yehinga Organisation

Project Report | Aug 17, 2026
OYO is reaching nine out of 14 regions this year

By Philippe Talavera | Director

Hear Me, our first inclusive dance piece

As you know, the Ombetja Yehinga Organisation (OYO) is a Namibian NGO that uses Arts to create social awareness. 2026 has been off to a good start. We have secured many partners and have been able to be back in schools and communities. For instance:

With Stichtung Hulp voor Jeugdiden we have been able to work with young people and school learners in Gobabis.
With the Finnish Embassy we have started our project on disabilities. We have created a new comic book, a photo exhibition and produced the first inclusive dance piece in Namibia. We have toured schools and communities and engaged stakeholders during exciting meetings.
With Interteam we have started our project to address teenage pregnancy in the Kavango East and West regions. We have toured the dance troupe, screened our film ‘Kukuri’, organised workshops.
With Horizon we could continue our project ‘growing strong in the ||Kharas region’. We are training two youth groups who are touring schools. The OYO dance troupe also toured schools.
With the Embassy of Switzerland in South Africa, we could address GBV in Rehoboth, working both in schools and with communities.
With the Embassy of Germany, we work on GBV in the Omusati, Hardap and Erongo regions. We published a new interactive comic book, we toured the dance troupe in schools, we organised a school competition.
With the French Embassy, we produced three seasons of dance
With Valentine Trust we continue developing our counselling wing
With the Mercury Phoenix Foundation we will continue developing tools for teenagers to address HIV.

Thanks to those projects, we are returning to schools and are visiting 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). Securing salaries and overheads still remain a challenge. 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

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