PARTNER STORY
A LEGACY OF CARING FOR COMMUNITIES
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here are many positive ways in which individuals and corporations can work together to change our nation. One of the best examples of how this is being done in Namibia is found in the passion, approach and results achieved by the Pupkewitz Foundation.
As the CEO of the Pupkewitz Foundation, Meryl Barry continues to build upon her family’s commitment to others by overseeing the strategic disbursement of millions of Namibian dollars annually in projects that support Community Development, Education, Health, Sport, Environment and Culture and Civil Society. “I grew up in a household where people had a lot of empathy,” explains Meryl, the daughter of legendary Namibian businessman, Harold Pupkewitz, and Ethel Pupkewitz. “One of the focal points of Judaism is to be charitable. Giving uplifts your spirit and the spirits of people in whose names you give.” The ancient Jewish principles on the subject of Giving are highly applicable to modern thinking. “The Concept of Giving is well explained in Judaism, and represents a principle our family follows”, says Meryl. Noteworthy is the concept of anonymous giving; that neither giver nor recipient knows one another, representing the second highest level of giving. Interestingly, the highest level of giving is to give
a job, or business partnership, which allows the person to become selfsupporting. In the offices of the Pupkewitz Foundation, Meryl Barry and Elanza Van Wyk, the Foundation’s Administrator, speak of the many and vast projects that have received support from the Pupkewitz Foundation since it was established in 2002. Meryl’s passion for each project is evident as she shares the stories behind each project, and the successes and difficulties that had to be overcome to support each one. Elanza explains, “Mrs. Barry is very passionate about the work that we do and I think that is what drives the Foundation. I’ve learned a lot from her especially when it comes to the good things that we can do for this country.” The Pupkewitz Foundation has a large and growing development investment budget that provides support to projects across the regions that are as varied and critical as the nation’s growing needs. For example, where for many years the Foundation supported the renovations of schools, their involvement in support for education has grown to providing new school blocks. The donation of all-terrain Land Cruisers for rhino conservation and endangered species, has expanded to provide institutional capacity to the environmental lawyers of the
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Legal Assistance Centre, as well as the Protected Resources Unit of the Namibian Police Service to investigate poaching and wild life crime and other cases. “The Foundation supports ninety-eight projects in total, over forty are major, and twenty-three have impact and all are projects are aimed at addressing social and economic disparities, as also respond to government’s development priorities,” notes Meryl. Included in the long list of projects supported by the Pupkewitz Foundation is one of the most impressive feeding schemes in Namibia, the Ethel Pupkewitz National Feeding Scheme. Established in 2015 in support of the City of Windhoek, as also to the Ministry of Gender, Equality and Child Welfare. As members of the Namibian Alliance for Improved Nutrition since 2011, chaired by the former Prime Minister, Nahas Angula, the Feeding Scheme supports early childhood development nutrition which is critical to not only each individual child, but in turn also provides capacity to the recent interministerial focus on the importance of Early Childhood Development.