200 children enjoy fish at Gobabis

NAMIBIA’S Matrix Commodity and Marketing (MaMa’s) Company fed more than 200 children with canned fish at the Namibia Fish Consumption Promotion Trust (NFCPT)’s annual celebration, which started at Gobabis this weekend.

The event, which formed part of the NFCPT’s annual attempt to promote fish consumption due to the general consensus that Namibia is known as “cattle country”, fed MaMa’s canned ocean pilchards to an eager crowd of children and elderly who braced the scorching heat to stand in the queue.

MaMa’s sales representative Bernard Kangumba said he was glad to have a chance to promote their product and give back to the community. “There will be more sessions like these in the future where we will feed people. We fed some farmers and their workers two weeks ago at Omashene,” said Kangumba.

An elderly woman, Haraera Tjombe, said she was very happy for having had the chance to eat some fish: “You [MaMa’s] should do this [more] often,” she said.

A Grade nine pupil at Epako High School, Johanna Shamwkey, shared Tjombe’s sentiments and thanked MaMa’s for their delicious fish. “You are doing a good job because you gave me an opportunity to taste fish,” she said.

According to NFCPT, the number of fish intake increased from January to August this year, with the trust distributing 4 800 metric tonnes of mackerel compared to 3 700 metric tonnes distributed last year.

Amongst those who attended were Governor of Omaheke Festus Ueitele and Minister of Fisheries and Marine Resources Bernard Esau who encouraged continuous support for the Trust, in addition to promoting fish consumption in every way possible.

Esau – who demonstrated to the eager crowd how to prepare the fish properly said, “NFCPT is here to ensure that fish is accessible at a much cheaper price.”

Since its inception in March 2001, the Trust has made fish accessible by setting up 13 shops in nine of the 14 regions and also made attempts to teach local people how to prepare fish.