BIG Pilot Project - Assessment Report - BIG Coalition Namibia

the food in bulk. We only travel once a month and we buy enough forthe month and some of the small items we need we buy at the localshop and shebeens.I would also like to put the concerns that a BIG could create dependencyand a culture of laziness into a theological context: Beforethe pilot project started, opponents said that if you give peoplemoney, and especially poor people, they will sit down and becomelazy. If you receive Manna from heaven (Ex 16), why should peoplework? The results of the research presented here, refute this claim.Moreover, if you look in depth at Exodus 16, the people of Israel inthe long journey out of slavery, they received manna from heaven.But, it did not make them lazy, instead, it enabled them to be on themove to travel through the desert. In Namibia, we know how harshthe circumstances of the desert can be. In this context nobodywould say, the manna made the Israelites dependent. To the contrary,it enabled them to move. And one might ask, why did theLORD not give them apple trees for example? Because he wantedthem to move, you can pick up the manna and go. You can moveout of the harsh realities of slavery and dependency - just like theBIG, you can pick it up and move, not being forced to stay at a certainlocation or in a particular condition. The BIG, like the manna,is freeing people to move and take ownership of their economic affairs.This is not a trap, but a precondition on the long and hardjourney to the promised land. We have seen just that in Otjivero-Omitara. Look at Frida Nembwaya, who, when receiving the BIG,started to bake traditional rolls for just N$1. Currently she is baking200 rolls a day, seven days a week. People in Otjivero-Omitara nowhave the money to buy from her. She currently considers to extendher shack and wants to employ somebody. She also added a smallbraiding business and sells local sausages and recharge vouchersfor cellphones. The Manna works, she is moving, so much so thatshe wrote on all the sides of her newly-built zink house: “Good lifeafter struggle”.VII