Windhoek
First year student at the University of Namibia (Unam), Petrus Karembera, is an living example that the Family of Hope Service (FHS) is giving hope to hopeless children in life.
The 21-years-old Karembera lived with his father since he was five years old and moved to Windhoek to live with his unemployed mother when his father passed on in 2005. When he arrived in Windhoek he could not get into any school because he had no school record. “My mother knew about FHS and she took me there. FHS accepted me to start classes there. I was not comfortable being there as I was older than others learners in my class. They encouraged me and told me they will get me back into school,” says Karembera.
With the help of FHS in 2010, Karembera was accepted at C.J. Brandt High school in Windhoek. They helped find him a sponsor, Petie Brown from United State of America (USA) to take care of his school needs. She paid his school fees, bought him school uniform and stationary. “I am grateful for their help as they opened the doors of my future. God bless them to open doors for many other young Namibians,” he says.
He is now a first year student at Unam studying Library and Information Science. FHS was founded by Abigail Bachopi, currently its director and is situated in the Havana Informal Settlement in Windhoek supporting close to 450 Orphans and Vulnerable children yearly. Bachopi says they have been helping orphaned and vulnerable children in Namibia find better life. They impart life skills to the children, feed them, and find sponsors for their schooling, donors for food, sponsors for counseling and medical care, volunteers for tutoring and self-esteem building. “We help children between the age 10 and 16 who have never been to school in their lives, to reach a level where they can get into the formal school system. We give kids who feel helpless, a safety net to ensure they are protected,” says Bachopi.
There are many reasons why many orphans and vulnerable children are not in school. Lots of people are caregivers to children that have been orphaned or who are vulnerable because their guardians are sick, and this leads to poor people already burdened with huge survival issues, caring for relatives, or younger siblings, or the children of friends. “There is often no money to feed these children decent meals, let alone send them to school. Sometimes kids even need to work to provide money for the households. It is complex and we knew we had to find a way to change things for these kids,” says Bachopi. The FHS rely on donations for school fees, food, clothing, school items, toiletries and furniture.