• By Staff Reporter

Ndara Joseph Ndemuyimba, a 29-year-old man, from the !Nxu marginalised community of Tsumkwe West constituency lost his parents when he was young  and as a result had to survive by harvesting  and selling the devil's claw plant.
Devil’s claws is peculiar to southern Africa, specifically Namibia and found in the wild. It is believed to heal anti-inflammatory and analgesic ailments.

On a normal day, Ndemuyimba would wakeup as early as 06h00, walk more than 50 kilometres to harvest the plant and sell them at the Mangetti Dune in the N≠a Jaqna Conservancy area.
“We sometimes went camping with six or seven other people from my community for nearly a month just to dig, cut and dry them before we sell them,” Ndemuyimba said.

He added that while in the forest, he survived by eating wild food such as monkey lemon and hunt wild animals.
“That is the only way I got money to buy my school uniform and food for the family” he said.
Ndemuyimba said that when he lost his parents, life became hard as he had to depend on his sister. “[At the time], my sister was working as a coordinator at a local conservancy and I made money from cleaning my teacher’s yards during the weekends.” 
However, he explained: “[When] I was in grade 8, I went to visit my sister during the school holiday in Tsumkwe West and I discovered that she lost her job and she was surviving from collecting devil’s claw to support the family. It was at this stage that he joined the family business in order to pay for his school and take care of himself.
 

However, in 2020, the tides turned for him when he was awarded a scholarship. The following year started a bridging course at the Community Skills Development Foundation (COSDEF) at Otjiwarongo and eventually enrolled for office administration level one course before moving to Tsumeb COSDEF for  level 2 and 3 eventually.” Ndemuyimba is one of 1,200 marginalized youth who received support and scholarships from the Palms for Life project. The initiative aims at equipping young people with skills for employment in Namibia’s growing tourism and hospitality sector. He further secured an internship at the Ondera Combined School which he successfully completed and was afterwards called back to assist. 
 

The school’s principal, Jason Kalenga spoke highly of Ndemuyimba and his commitment towards his duties as an administrator. 
Kalenga said that they are willing to keep him at the school.
“Despite the ministry of education’s recruitment process, my colleagues and I have come together to contribute something monthly to serve as an allowance for him while he also build on his experience,” Kalenga said.