ZADANG – Motor-Vehicle Accident Fund CEO Rosalia Martins-Hausiku says if entities join hands in rural schools’ building projects, a lot will improve, changing education for the better.
Martins-Hausiku was speaking at the handover of classrooms built by the MVA in partnership with MTC at Zadang junior primary school in the remote Kavango East region, about 145 km south of Rundu.
“This started with a newspaper article [New Era]; a colleague came with the newspaper article which featured Zadang junior primary school, and all that we saw in the article were these two structures that are in front of us. Our hearts were moved, and as an institution that has set itself to further some of the UN’s sustainable development goals such as good health, wellbeing and quality education, we said we need to be involved,’’ she stated.
The school was exposed in March last year during Kavango East governor Bonifatius Wakudumo’s visit to the village with a journalist to engage communities, and while there, a surprise visit was made to the school.
“We knew that we could not do it alone, and we knew about the MTC rural schools’ project. We approached MTC, and as visionary as they are, they were ready to take us on board with their project, and were ready to place a focus on this school,’’ she noted. The seasoned executive added: “What I want to emphasise is that there’s no way that we are going to attain sustainable cities if we don’t start with sustainable rural areas. I, therefore, want to invite other corporations, and I think this has been proven. This is our third project with MTC; this is not the first rural classrooms’ project that we are actually handing over. I believe that if we have more corporations joining us in this project, we are going to transform Namibia, one rural school at a time.”
The new classrooms enable local and learners nearby to access quality education that’s closer to home, making it more accessible and reducing the need to walk long distances. To the learners, Martins-Hausiku had this to say: “The passion and commitment that have been demonstrated by the teacher in teaching learners in the worn-out makeshift class is plausible.”
Meanwhile, MTC’s Tim Ekandjo called for increased enrolment for learners.
“We are in fact very grateful to be here today at Zadang village to hand over and present a brand-new future for these children. We are not celebrating MVA or MTC, but we are celebrating a teacher and a community who decided there’s no school here; we are going to take whatever we have to provide education to our children,’’ he added.
Kavango East education director Christine Shilima told the community to enrol all children at school, and not to keep them at home. “Just register more learners in January, and we will bring in teachers so that we stop multigrade teaching, as it is currently happening now that one teacher is teaching grades 0 to 3 in one class,’’ she said.
The teacher who initially called for help, Amelia Adriano, was full of praise for the donors. “We are so excited and thankful. It is indeed a privilege to us as Zadang JP and the community to receive this gift of classrooms and toilets. This means a lot to us, looking at where we are coming from with our makeshift classrooms that we used to have. To our donors, you are indeed God-sent”, she beamed.