18 years in Namibia - also a milestone for project manager Sonja Schneider-Waterberg. A short interview:
Actually, every steps supporter also knows the Okakarara site – the place where it all began. You have been there from the beginning – just like foundation founder Michael Hoppe – and experienced all the firsts in Namibia: the founding in the Red Cross House, the first preschool, the first Schutzengel children, the first income-generating step, the first volunteer. It was 18 years ago that you settled in Namibia and made your home here. For 18 years, you have not only followed the development of Okakarara and steps for children, you have helped shape it.
How did it come about that you came to Namibia?
As a child, I always had the question in my head: „Why don't I actually live in Africa?“ After my A-levels, studies, traineeship and a few great years as a teacher, I applied for a sabbatical year to find an answer to the question of life in Africa. After two months in Okakarara, I already suspected that the answer was: „From now on, I'm living in Africa.“
2006: The first pre-school children together with Sonja Schneider-Waterberg in Okakarara.
We have already picked out important milestones that have shaped Okakarara and made it what it is today. What progress have you been particularly pleased with?
The consistent development and further advancement of the Schutzengel Program, which has also been established at all the other sites, is an especially gratifying process. Thanks to the dedicated support of numerous Schutzengel, we have created a social step through which we accompany at least some of the preschool children for years, share their joys, hardships and successes with them, and make it possible for them to truly have a future that they can shape themselves.
In addition to progress, there have also been challenges in these 18 years - which of these do you particularly remember?
The greatest challenge and at the same time the greatest enrichment for all those involved is everyday intercultural interaction.
Are there any new goals for the Okakarara and Ongombombonde site that you are aiming for with your team?
Great goal 1: My utopian vision, which I stubbornly pursue: Build a team so strong no one can point out the leader.
Great goal 2: Establish Ongombombonde as a Centre of Excellence for regenerative, sustainable, holistic agriculture – a place of learning for children & adults, the steps team, the surrounding community, the residents of the communal land east of Ongombombonde and everyone interested in what they see being developed there.
The community cohesion in Okakarara is great. What does it mean to celebrate an anniversary together with steps employees, but also with the community from Okakarara, who have regularly supported you on site in the realisation of various things?
While the institutions often have a hard time with us, they almost look a little longingly at our steady progress, we have received a lot of support from individuals, some of whom have supported us over the entire 18 years: also office holders who have been inspired by the steps idea, but above all countless people without office who feel comfortable with steps and contribute what they can.
f.l.: Sonja Schneider-Waterberg with Festus Tjikuua, member of the Board of Trust from the beginning, now Chairman
Your role as project manager of steps Okakarara remains - but since the end of 2023 you are also National Coordinator and thus responsible for steps in Namibia. Congratulations to you! What has changed since then?
The workload 🙂 Overall, the new task offers the opportunity to take tried-and-tested tools from Okakarara, after review and adaptation in the group of project managers, to the other locations and thus, on the one hand, to simplify the work, and on the other hand to create more synergies between the different locations, in order to highlight more clearly what is special about the steps idea, while at the same time preserving the individual character of the local projects.
We are delighted that we can also get an insight into the celebrations on site from Germany and other parts of the world. With the anniversary in Okakarara, we are celebrating not only the location, but also the start of steps in Namibia. What contribution can I make as a supporter to help promote the work of the foundation as a whole?
Stay committed to us. As hard as we are working to make the projects financially self-sustaining one day, we need the continued cooperation of our colleagues, supporters and donors in Germany and Switzerland, because true sustainability, based on a better mutual understanding and knowledge of each other's challenges and hopes, comes from cooperation between the northern and southern hemispheres.
Thank you very much for the interview and for sharing your personal experiences and memories with us, dear Sonja!
