Past Projects
Botswana
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Providing funding for cell-phone "airtime" to support long-distance conversations about human rights issues in schools among San organizations during COVID lockdowns.
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Working to support the efforts of those distributing soap and hand sanitizer to San communities in Central Botswana and Western Ngamiland.
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Supporting the translation of COVID-19 information into a variety of southern African languages, including !Xun, Ju|'hoan, G|ui, G||ana, and Naro.
Namibia
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Facilitated translations, logistical support, and fuel funding for the distribution of COVID-19 guidelines in English and Ju|'hoansi, soap, disinfectant, washing powder, maize meal, and schoolbooks to Nyae Nyae communities
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Namibian internet project via Africa Online to promote connections and communications. (See below for more details!)
South Africa
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Funding access to clean drinking water for the ǂKhomani San community at Andriesvale.
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Supporting African Tongue's work to translate COVID-related materials into !Xun, Khwedam, Afrikaans, and Khoekhoegowab for communities in South Africa and Namibia.
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Funding a local NGO, SASDO to bundle and distribute soap, masks, and COVID-19 information to the !Xun and Khwe of Platfontein.
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Monitoring the situation of the Platfontein residents.
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Click here for a video about the current situation there
Across Southern Africa
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Supporting the translation of COVID-19 information into local languages.
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Visit our new GUIDANCE FOR MINORITY LANGUAGE SPEAKERS IN SOUTHERN AFRICA page!
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KPF's English-language COVID-19 information templates have sent to linguists and others working with click-speaking indigenous Hadza and Sandawe people of Tanzania.
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KPF is grateful to the Heinrich Barth Institute for Archaeology and Environmental History of Africa at the University of Cologne for a grant of 500 Euros to our Namibian internet project.
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South Africa decommissioned its Jupiter satellite in August 2020, and KPF was enabled via Africa Online to connect to a new satellite.
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This grant was arranged by Dr. Tilman Lenssen-Erz of Cologne's Africa Research Unit, Institute of Prehistoric Archaeology. Many thanks from KPF and from N||oaq!'ae Online!
For the latest COVID-19 infection rates and data across the continent and globe, please visit the Johns Hopkins COVID-19 map HERE.
Community Water and Resource Development
KPF has provided major funding and consultation to a group of projects in Namibia and Botswana that fall under the heading of Community-Based Natural Resource Management (CBNRM). Funding has supported borehole drilling so that water and land rights coud be established; geneological work and land use mapping to support land claims; local community development liaison officers to consult for and monitor collective action projects; the provision of professional environmental information to support sustainable development; and the protection of community water supplies against elephant depradation.
Kalahari Healing Narratives, Folklore and Oral History
KPF has been asked to provide training so that the San and other peoples of the Kalahari can themselves produce texts and visual materials for their community schools and archives. To fulfill this request, KPF members who are professional linguists and anthropologists are calling on over three decades of informed knowledge of the languages and traditions of these peoples. Computer literacy and training in digital recording technology began in 2001 and will continue for as long as there is a community desire for this assistence. Construction has begun on a high speed internet connection in Nyae Nyae, Namibia to facilitate materials produciton, archiving and access. To read more about folklore and oral history, please visit our Resources page.
Administrative Support
For almost 40 years, KPF's projects have been carried out with the volunteer labor of professional anthropologists, linguists, educators and writers. Though our overhead costs are minimal, KPF relies on your donations for the administrative expenses necessary to support all of our projects. We appreciate your help!