Matheus Hamutenya
Gainachas-The //Karas Governor’s office extended a helping hand by donating 28 mattresses to the J.A Kahuika community hostel. The donation took place on Wednesday.
Handing over the mattresses to the school, //Karas Governor Lucia Basson said that although the mattresses were not sufficient in number, the donation signified the willingness of the government and her office in particular, to better the living conditions of the learners despite the limited resources.
“This is just the beginning, and even with our limited resources we can and we will be ready to assist you,” she stated.
She urged learners to take good care of the mattresses, and said that after receiving the mattresses as a donation from the Oranjemund private hospital, she decided to donate the mattresses to the school, having seen the poor state of the mattresses at the hostel during her visit last year.
Basson further pledged to assist with the renovation of two buildings at the school, one of which is used as a kitchen, dining room, and television room and are believed to be the two oldest buildings at the school, from 1929 and 1970’s respectively.
The hostel can accommodate 48 learners, but has slightly exceeded that number to cater for vulnerable children. J.A Kahuika primary school principal, Thomas Oarum, said that although the mattresses were not enough for all the learners, they would bring comfort to some of them.
He said such donations were long overdue as the hostel was in a bad condition, especially the old and thinly layered mattresses.
“We have waited for these kind of donations as the matrasses we have are in bad condition; they are not enough but we appreciate it,” he said of the donation.
Oarum told New Era that the hostel was small and could not accommodate all the learners. The school needed a bigger hostel to accommodate more learners, especially those from surrounding farms, so that they did not have to go far from home in search of education.
The school in the Berseba constituency has 180 learners and seven teachers