RUNDU – Vice-President Nangolo Mbumba is expected to attend and be the main speaker at the Mururani community hostel gala dinner in Rundu tonight.

The hostel is situated along the Rundu-Grootfontein road at Mururani village, some 130km from Rundu, in Mankupi Constituency in Kavango West.

The gala dinner, which is the first to be hosted by the non-governmental organisation, is aimed at raising funds for the struggling community hostel that serves about 321 boys and girls who attend grades 0 to grade 10 at nearby schools in Mururani and surroundings villages.

The hostel saves this learners from walking long distances to class without which some learners would have stayed out of school because of distance.

The hostel mainly hosts learners from the San community, orphans and vulnerable children. The funds to be raised will help renovate the hostel infrastructure that is falling apart.

The hostel does get some financial assistance from the ministry of education through a subsidy but it is not enough to cater for the increasing learner population, which outstrips the bed capacity at the facility.

The current bed capacity can accommodate 140 learners (70 girls and 70 boys) but due to the higher learner population, some children are accommodated in the dining hall after they have been served their dinner. 

“Some learners do pay as required but many don’t as they are mainly vulnerable children from poor backgrounds, mainly the San and farm workers from around this areas. Our hostel is small and overcrowded as we cannot send children,” said the hostel matron Anna Murauli.

“When we are stuck and have no money to buy food, the hostel through the founders goes to banks to ask for overdrafts or loans, which they can repay once the subsidy from government is paid.”