The Marginalized Mirror is a non-profit community-based organisation established in August 2021, to support and empower Indigenous Ovazemba community in Namibia. The Ovazemba community depends on the agricultural production of crops and livestock for survival. However, recurring droughts have resulted in the loss of livestock, sources of dairy products, and traditional crops that would normally be planted during the rainy season. The Ovazemba Community is one of the marginalised ethnic groups in Namibia with low level of literacy, high unemployment rate, and very low level of participation in mainstream economic activities.

In response to eliminate social and economic marginalisation, impacts of drought and vulnerability to COVID-19, a plan was developed to establish a common-resource (community-based irrigation project) to produce horticultural and agronomic crops for human consumption and fodder for livestock. Produced crops and fodder will not only feed and sustain the community and their livestock, but will also serve as an economic activity for the community to generate income from selling surplus. The project will not only focus on poverty reduction and food security, but also on job creation, environmental regeneration, and maintaining a good relationship between culture, nature, and environment for ecological restoration and sustainable community benefit.

The Impact of The Marginalized Mirror
The long-term impact of the project is a socially and economically uplifted community with a sustainable work-based place, neighbourhood renewal, resilience to climate change, food security, improved health, expanded agricultural activities, enhanced biodiversity, living in harmony with nature, and adoption of responsible investments in agriculture and food systems through training and human capacity development on Ovazemba culture-led regenerative agriculture while enhancing indigenous knowledge, ancestral wisdom, and the traditional Ovazemba gastronomy.