RELAX & UNWIND
in the Namibian Kalahari
Feel at home on Ombe Guestfarm, a family run livestock business and one of the first officially registered guest farms in Namibia.
Your hosts, Florian and Katrin, look forward to welcoming you to their little paradise and enjoy sharing their passion for nature with you.
Ombe Guestfarm
History & Sustainability
4th Family Generation
Florian and Katrin together with their team have been running the agricultural and tourist business since 2019. Before becoming full-time farmers, they studied in Germany and lived and worked in Australia and New Zealand for number of years. In 2022 their twins Martin and Luna were born.
3rd Family Generation
In the 90's Winfried and Elke Zwar received many guests from overseas, who especially enjoyed cuddling with the two tame cheetahs in the garden. The cats Teddy and Rex have passed away at the age of eleven and to this day, Ombe is encouraging a sustainable population of free roaming big cats on the farm.
1953 Ombe's Beginning
The great grandparents Alma and Heinrich bought the 4100-hectare farm in 1953. Three years later the first flushable toilet was built and in 1963 Ombe got a generator for electricity. Alma and Heinrich laid the foundations for a successful cattle, sheep and crop farm. 1966 they retired in Swakopmund and their second daughter Gisela and husband Dieter took over the management.
The name Ombe is an abbreviation from the original farm name Ombeameiata. In the Herero languages the farm is called "Omboua maijata Tjinakwi" meaning the dog stepping on the Kalahari Water Tuber / Raphionacme burkei.
1913 Early settler years
The settler brothers Herbert and Heinrich Fastenau came by ship from Germany to Swakopmund in 1913. They earned a living as general farmworkers and regularly drove the ox wagon to Windhoek, selling butter and ham and later potatoes. Reoccurring droughts and seven years of war internment forced them to rebuild their existence from scratch.
In 1928 Heinrich got married to Alma. Together they had three children, living a basic lifestyle without electricity or running water. Their days were filled with physically intense jobs; drilling for water, building livestock fences, wells, dams and stones for brick houses.
Ombe Foundation & Sustainabity
The Ombe Foundation was founded to empower the farm workers and women in the rural community:
• Breaking the chain of illiteracy in rural areas through funding and thus ensuring schooling for the children of the farm workers.
• Create part time or permanent job opportunities and financial independency, by empowering the women in rural areas, who too often become victims of prostitution or patriarchist traditions.
• Minimizing drug abuse by creating and promoting community sport and training or team building seminars.
• Fight poverty and make bigger or smaller dreams come true. For example, providing a warm winter blanket, soccer shoes or the opportunity to see the ocean.
• Breaking the chain of illiteracy in rural areas through funding and thus ensuring schooling for the children of the farm workers.
• Create part time or permanent job opportunities and financial independency, by empowering the women in rural areas, who too often become victims of prostitution or patriarchist traditions.
• Minimizing drug abuse by creating and promoting community sport and training or team building seminars.
• Fight poverty and make bigger or smaller dreams come true. For example, providing a warm winter blanket, soccer shoes or the opportunity to see the ocean.
Ombe Foundation Highlights 2021
The Ombe Foundation funded new bathrooms amongst the rural community. Toilets, sewage systems, showers and dishwash facilities were built from scratch, bedrooms were renovated and verandas were constructed. Thanks to the generous donation through family Schmidt from Munich the project increases the quality of life in six households.
Ombe Foundation aims 2022
In 2022, the Ombe Foundation financed school fees for farm children, hot water supply in the households of farm employees and supported football tournaments in the Hochfeld area.
In the long term, the construction of a hobby room where further training and sewing activities can take place is planned.
In the long term, the construction of a hobby room where further training and sewing activities can take place is planned.
Ombe Guestfarm Covid Info
Ombe Guestfarm is officially certified by the Namibian Ministry of Health with regard to compliance with the COVID-19 hygiene regulations. Our priority is to offer our guests and employees a safe environment.
We are pleased that Ombe Guestfarm offers ideal conditions to ensure social distancing.
We are pleased that Ombe Guestfarm offers ideal conditions to ensure social distancing.
