A craft project initiated in Grashoek, located in the Tsumkwe Constituency, in 2025, is assisting local women in empowering themselves while also contributing to community development. 

The project also brings together women who make crafts while teaching cultural knowledge to the youth.

With high unemployment in the small community of Grashoek, a group of women is working together to improve their livelihoods through craft-making.

Speaking to NBC News, project coordinator Visser !Aici said, "This initiative is not an individual project; it's a community project. Since its inception, it has built 12 houses for the community and will continue to do so."

He added that as the projects grow bigger, they will be able to provide for schools, hostels and surrounding communities that suffer water-related problems. 

One of the women who benefits from the project, |Koce #Oma, expressed satisfaction with the project to date. 

"I'm grateful for the project; at least some of us are now having houses, and it brings us together. At the beginning, some of us did not know how to make crafts, but now they know how."

The group also faces several challenges. 

One of their main difficulties is transport. Women struggle to take their crafts to markets where they can sell them. 

Instead, they rely on a donor from Norway, whose visits are infrequent, sometimes lasting up to ten months, to help them sell their products.

Another challenge is hunger and poverty in the community. Some of the women are unable to attend because they struggle to meet basic needs.

The women support the local school by visiting there three days a week.

During these sessions, they teach learners how to make crafts, share traditional storytelling, and pass on important cultural norms and values.

For the women of Grashoek, the craft project is more than a source of income. It is a sign of resilience, cultural pride and hope for a better future for the next generation.