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Home / Giving hope to the marginalized and orphans
Giving hope to the marginalized and orphans
2016-03-16Staff Report 2 "Ruacana Imagine you are a six-year-old orphan and leave home for the nearest village in search of food, but on your way to the village you come across a team evaluating learners for enrolment at a free private school and you are accepted. You get into the private school but weeks later you become miserable because you miss your twin brother who is in hospital because he is malnourished. The school eventually locates your twin and brings him to school and thereafter you flourish. This is the tale of twins Vezemboua and Viyandamuye Kapuree, Grade 1 learners, who have been given the opportunity to benefit from Nakayale Private Academy in Ruacana. The school opened on January 18 this year and aims to empower and uplift marginalized children from the Omusati Region through the provision of free and high qua-lity education. The school has 59 learners and 19 staff including the principal, four teachers, and a hostel admi-nistrator. There are two pre-school classes, two Grade 1 classes and one Grade 2 class. Each year it will upgrade by a grade. Learners at Nakayale will receive a full scholarship and be given free accommodation, food, clothing and learning materials through the Dirk Mudge Trust. The school’s construction plus furniture cost N$20 million. It is built on 50 hectares of land donated to the trust by the ELCIN Western Diocese. Director of the Dirk Mudge Trust, Chrisna Greeff, said although they use the ministry of education curriculum they linked it to St Paul’s Private School in Windhoek. Greeff said they added a lot of programmes because they need to prepare the children to be ready when they graduate from the school. “I am aware we will have to be involved with the children even after primary school phase. We will have to see that they get to good secondary schools and tertiary institutions, with the hope that they will come back to this region,” she remarked, adding that they want a return on their investment by getting the learners to finish tertiary education. “They are my responsibility until they have diplomas or degrees. I have to make sure that happens and make sure the infrastructure is there long after I am gone to keep the school going. For the first time in my life I am doing something worthwhile. I am making a difference and it is a blessing,” said Greeff, who also called on corporate entities to get involved and assist to have such a school in all regions to cater for bright learners. Although the Kapuree twins were enrolled at a government school last year, they did not religiously attend because of the difficult circumstances at home. Greeff said they were not aware Vezemboua is a twin and only became aware when he stopped talking at school. “We realized there was a problem and eventually one of the teachers won his confidence and he told her he was missing his brother. They are orphans and when their parents died they didn’t have a guardian and were sort of on their own. They were really famished and he (Vezemboua) decided to walk to another village to see if there is food available, which he did, and this was about the time we arrived to evaluate learners and he (Vezemboua) was evaluated and accepted by the school.” She added that they later located the other twin and brought him to the school. “I realized that why he (Vezemboua) was miserable was because the twin that got left behind is the stronger one of the two. He had lost someone who cares for him. When we brought the brother here he flourished.” " 2016-03-16Staff Report 2
