Day 19 - Gobabis to Omitara

Almost home! Today they will cycle about 100 km's to Omitara. They will camp at the home of the local hotel owner.
Omitara is part of the Steinhausen district.
I found something else interesting. Here in SA we have a grant system and there are numerous categories, old age, single parent, foster parent etc. Namibian pensioners get an independent allowance of 450N$ per month. In 2008 and 2009, Omitara and Otjivero were the site of a basic income grant test project. Every person under the retirement age of 60 was given 100 Namibian dollars instead of the 450. The results reported that poverty-related crime, malnutrition rates among children and school drop outs had decreased since the inception of the project. This might sound obvious because they have more than double the money but it is still about what you choose to spend that money on! Labour and church were the ones pushing for BIG. The last project payments were made in 2009-and to ensure that these folk don't fall back into their previous levels of property they gave them a small bridging allowance over the original grant of 450. I am going to try and find out what transpired with regards to national implementation. What I find interesting is that a study in SA showed that grant recipients demonstrated much more responsible financial behavior.