Social & Press

Crèche

Desert Fruit Kids plays a critical role in our community development commitment on the farm. We strive to create spaces and places for holistic education for the children, and create employment opportunities for people living on the farm and surrounding settlements. In early 2017, the crèche employed two women who live in the local community and bring special skills to this learning environment. These ladies have interpreting skills and are able to speak two to three different languages, which helps the children feel more comfortable, and makes for easier communication between teacher and child.

The primary aim of the crèche is to provide employees’ children with a safe haven during the work day when their parents are engaged in other activities on the farm. We believe that creating a caring and loving environment will help children to mentally engage, emotionally mature, and be more open to learning as they grow up. Providing a good education, having fun, making friends, preparing for primary school and developing life skills are all pillars of our Desert Fruit Kids commitment. An on-site sister provides health care at the crèche every morning with visual inspection.

We currently have 38 children attending the crèche and plan to grow in size and quality every year; thus creating more educational opportunities for the children, and additional employment opportunities for local adults.

Headmistress Suzette provides education for pre-school children to equip them with the basic skill set necessary to attend primary school in Ariamsvlei or Karasburg.

Teacher Maria van der Byl provides a loving learning environment for children ages 4 – 6, providing them with the necessary skills to move on to the pre-school class.

Teacher Maria Imaneul’s playgroup consist of 2 – 4-year olds. She not only provides a loving environment for play and exploration, she also places a strong emphasis on teaching her students good behavior and prepping them for their next class.

Clinic

The Desert Fruit Clinic opened in March 2017, and was visited by Namibia’s Minister of Home Affairs and Immigration Hon. Minister Pendukeni Iivula-Ithana on 18 October 2017.

This clinic allows us to provide our employees with basic health services, delivered on-site by a well-trained, registered nurse.

Registered nurse Rachel Goraseb has over 20 years’ experience within the government sector. She does a daily check-in at the crèche—a visual and physical inspection of each child.

The clinic is a free-of-charge service that the company provides its employees. Further steps are taken when Nurse Rachel is unable to assist employees with health issues; including company provided transport to a clinic in the nearest town that is able to provide the necessary services.

Shop and Butchery

At Desert Fruit we are committed to the best possible welfare of our employees. We do our best to ensure that we have healthy employees who benefit from and are committed to the farm’s growth.

Because we are situated 65km from the nearest town, we originally established and staffed a farm shop to help employees purchase day-to-day staples. We have since expanded our product line to include fresh vegetables and meat – both of which are sold at “cost.”

Farm-grown vegetables provide a variety of choices for employees, and ensure that they have easy access to a healthier, balanced diet.

The on-site butchery slaughters and prepares our own livestock to supply fresh meat to employees and their families.
We are currently selling more than 1200kg of organic beef to our employees.

Transport to and from Karasburg (175km from the farm) is provided to employees at the end of each month.

Water and sanitation Programme

Desert Fruit is committed to providing employees with easy access to basic sanitation facilities and clean running water. Stations are built in each of the date orchards on the farm, with each station providing running water, toilets and basins.