Ongwediva
A German company, Kinderhilfe Namibia has volunteered to build five classrooms, a modernized playground, six toilets and a garden at the Ohakweenya Combined School.
The invitation of Kindehilfe was initiated by Paulus Noa, the Director-General of the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) in Namibia. Noa is the patron of the school.
Wolfgang Kleine the country representative of Kinderhilfe Namibia said the school will need to decide on the colour of the paint.
“Kids, I know that if you do not live in a desirable environment, there won’t be motivation. I am thankful that there is no vandalism at the school, and this should go on,” Kleine said. According to Kleine, Kinderhilfe Namibia has 30 members and the company has so far spent 50 million on 200 projects. “Nobody knows this place in Germany. Your village is very lucky and blessed to have Paulus Noa, because if it was not for him, we would not be here today. The classrooms will be for kindergarten, pre-primary and grade one learners. The toilets that we will build are intended for the small kids so they will be separated from the older learners,” Kleine continued. Kinderhilfe in Namibia supports self-help projects of local communities for the construction, enlargement and improvement of pre-primary schools, schools and kindergartens.
The director of education in Oshana Region, Hileni Amukana, said that Ohakweenyanga Combined School will be the first school in the country to transform a kindergarten from the private sector to the government.
This, according to her, came about when the education ministry and the gender equality and child welfare ministry decided to join ventures and transfer the kindergarten section from the gender ministry to the education ministry.
“Our ministry has vast needs. We want qualified teachers for our four-year-olds. In addition to that, we also need vocational education at secondary schools. We therefore need good governance, not only looking at government level, but at schools too,” Amukana said.
The inauguration of the new classrooms will be on June 16 this year. Amukana stated the late Abraham Iyambo, the then minister of education spent N$84 million on building classrooms within four months in 2012. She noted that Iyambo went on site himself to investigate how progress was going. Amukana further said that the intended date of inauguration should strictly be adhered to, to meet the late education minister’s vision.