Small things can make a big difference

Hendrina Kudhingililwa (21), a co-founder of Kaigo Sha House Foundation, says her own experience going to bed hungry fuelled her unending commitment to do whatever it takes to help others.She recounts a bus ride, in June 2021, during which she sat next to a woman whose baby looked unwell.“I asked the mother what was wrong with the baby, and she told me her child was suffering from malnutrition. I was shocked to hear of a malnourished child in Namibia," she says.The young woman recalls that the child&#039;s eyes looked pale and yellow. All she could do, she says, was to pray for the baby to make it out of the bus alive.Sadly, less than two weeks later, she was told that the infant had died. She blamed herself for weeks after the news, she remembers.Helping hand"Instead of going on social media to complain about the government, I knew I had to meet the government halfway and be the change I want to see.”Together with the foundation&#039;s co-founder, Suama Jason, Kudhingililwa has established a mobile soup kitchen that caters to children twice a week.Both are financial advisors by profession.They hope to start a &#039;keeping a child in school programme&#039;, that will identify children whose parents don&#039;t earn an income and cannot afford to buy enough food and toiletries."We will be donating food and toiletries to identified beneficiaries every month in Windhoek and, in the long run, the whole of Namibia."The pair say they need the help of the nation, now more than ever, to reach the goals they have set and to provide a better life to children who need it."I stand firm and believe that children should be loved and cared for by those around them. To grow up and say: ‘when I was a child there was a time that I went to bed hungry, with no clothes, but strangers in my country fed and clothed me’.”She is profoundly aware of her lack of skills to make any material difference, but she is determined to do what she can."I am not a doctor, I can&#039;t influence foreign policies, I can&#039;t build schools, I can&#039;t chemically engineer the protein paste that helps people with acute malnutrition, but I can talk about it and so can you," the 21-year-old says.

Small things can make a big difference

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Namibian Sun 2025-04-29

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Small things can make a big difference

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Namibian Sun 2025-04-29

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