Buy Local, Grow Namibia Fair this weekend
The ‘Buy Local, Grow Namibia’ campaign, in collaboration with the Franco Namibian Cultural Centre (FNCC) and the Local Merchant Market, will host its first Buy Local, Grow Namibia Fair on 24 September at the FNCC in Windhoek.The fair will provide a platform to highlight the abundance in variety and quality that is on offer in the local Namibian market.
The event will be a vibrant, family-oriented occasion encouraging the public to buy local, support Namibian entrepreneurs and appreciate the rich culture of the country.
The fair will showcase a market with vendors from industries spanning health, food, cosmetics, technology, arts, fashion and home decor amongst others, displaying their locally produced goods and services.
There will also be a variety of local food and drinks, as well as entertainment with live musical performances, children’s games and an exclusive showcase of local films to round off the day.
Minister of industrialisation and trade, Lucia Iipumbu, along with Sen Pang, the United Nations resident coordinator in Namibia, will open the fair.
They will be joined by members of the diplomatic and business community in visiting the various stalls offering proud Namibian products.
Film project
The films to be screened stem from a project from August this year, namely ‘Kino Namibia Film Festival 2022’, a film hub project under the umbrella of the Namibia Film Commission in partnership with the UNDP Accelerator Lab Namibia.
Following the success of Kino Namibia, thirteen local films were developed in 48 hours.
At least six of these films, themed around seven of the 17 of the 2030 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) will be screened in the evening at the event.
The seven selected goals are poverty, health, quality education, gender equality, innovation, climate change and governance respectively.
Kino Namibia is a youth film project that was started in 2017 that aims to develop film production skills and create a networking platform for young upcoming likeminded creatives.
A total of 46 short films have been created so far. Since its launch in October 2020, ‘Buy Local, Grow Namibia’ has been a multi-stakeholder campaign organising various activities to create awareness around the need to support Namibia’s economic recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic by making use of local products and services.
Now well within the implementation of the Buy Local, Grow Namibia Phase II activities, they are also making concerted efforts to reach, collaborate with and empower the creative sector as one of the industries hardest hit by the Covid-19 pandemic.