RUNDU – A group of Rundu youths, Ithemba Charity Group, is making a difference in the communities in and around the town.
Just last week Thursday, Theresia Orphans and Vulnerable Children Foundation in Mavanze village was the latest beneficiary of the group’s generosity when more than 100 children and several elderly people were served breakfast and lunch, among other treats.
Ithemba (hope in isiZulu) is made up of 13 members consisting of university students and community members of Rundu, who have the passion to assist the Orphans and the Vulnerable Children (OVCs) in the area. According to the group’s leader Daniel Kameya, Ithemba was formed this year in April to meet the needs of the OVCs in the town of Rundu. Kameya said, “Our mission is to reach out to as many children as possible by educating them that there are so many opportunities in life so that they can have a better tomorrow by building today.”
Already the youthful group has made a tremendous impact, as the Mavanze village outreach was not the first project the charity group has embarked on. The first beneficiaries were in Rundu town at the Kavango Orphanage Home.
“With the Kavango Orphanage Home, we went to identify the challenges these orphans are facing, school wise, and how we can help as a group. We found that most of the kids there were struggling with winter, they did not have enough jackets and they also wanted hats to keep them warm. That’s when we decided to focus our first project on providing the winter necessities for these kids since as Ithemba that is what we are for. We are there to cater to these orphans.”
For the Kavango Orphanage Home, the group managed to provide 67 kids with beanies and jackets as well as blankets, socks, stationaries and meals. Narrating how the Mavanze charity outreach came about, Kameya said the group met at the beginning of this month and decided to cast their eyes beyond the town boundaries. “We decided that we cannot only focus our help on children within our area because the children we helped for the last project, which was on 1 June 2019, were in Sun City and it is within Rundu.”
The group then found the Theresia OVC Foundation that is situated 15 kilometres outside Rundu, which caters for children aged three to 20 years who go there for meals and then go back home. “We went there with a specific goal to educate them and find out what are the challenges that they are facing when it comes to school and the different kinds of activities they would want to do. What is the barrier to the things they want to do? ” On that visit at Theresia OVC Foundation, the group met 102 children, 36 of them below three years old.
Out of the myriad problems these children face, the group identified school uniforms, sanitary ware, stationaries, and food as most pressing needs of this group. The children also faced many societal challenges. The charity group is already working on its next project named ‘smart kids – smart look, smart brains’ that aims to provide uniforms and stationaries to learners in and around Rundu and is already
mobilising donations, as they hope to make it on a bigger scale.