Outjo Football Academy (OFA) launched a month-long regional cleaning campaign in the Kunene Region on Thursday, complementing existing national and regional cleaning programmes.
As the Namibian government intensifies efforts to foster a sustainable environmental management and waste disposal culture, OFA has joined the rest of the country in the cleaning drive, with this year's programme kicking off in Outjo.
The former Kunene Second Division Football League champions, now part of the North North West First Division, conducted a clean-up campaign in Outjo in 2019. Additionally, the previous year saw the renovation of the Etoshapoort stadium, including the establishment of a soup kitchen that provided meals for less fortunate street children from various settlements.
In an interview with Nampa on Thursday, OFA manager, Hennie Kavendjii stated that the club took the initiative to express appreciation and honour supporters for their backing. He further acknowledged the importance of supporters allowing their children to participate in various football development activities in the region. Kavendjii emphasised that it is their responsibility to contribute to cleaning the towns, ensuring that the community lives in a clean and hygienic state.
'Our towns are dirty and unsanitary, and our players and community must live in a clean environment. We, OFA, have been promoted to the First Division and will have visitors from various clubs, and it is our social responsibility to be in a clean town,' he explained.
According to Kavendjii, the campaign has identified locations with prevalent littering in collaboration with the regional council, town and village councils, and the governor's office, all of which are actively involved in the campaign.
'We targeted the larger towns in the region and reached out to them based on our accessibility. In this campaign, we will collaborate with municipalities, the Governor's Office, and the Regional Council,' stated Kavendjii.
Outjo, Opuwo, Kamanjab, Khorixas and Sesfonetin have been designated as areas for this programme. The cleaning campaign will run from 05 October until 04 November.
In addition to the cleaning initiative, Kavendjii declared that there would be a football game in which multiple towns would have the opportunity to select their top youth players to compete against OFA.
Source: The Namibia Press Agency