Elizabeth Hiyolwa
School board members of Tuguva Combined School in Kavango West region were blissful for a donation of old clothes to destitute learners last week.
A canopied pick-up laden with bags of old clothes donated by residents of Lüderitz was offloaded at the school on Tuesday for distribution to less privileged learners.
It all started earlier this year in February when Petrus Nambara joined the school as the head of department. He said he was saddened and overwhelmed by the extreme poverty of some learners who did not have uniforms or even decent clothing. He thus took the inventive to make efforts and requested for assistance from friends and former colleagues from as far as Lüderitz, Keetmanshoop, Rehoboth, Windhoek, Swakopmund, Walvis Bay and Henties Bay to donate school uniforms and they in turn responded positively to his request.
“The reason of wearing a school uniform is to let all learners feel the same. What I saw is that some were wearing casual clothes and then these clothes were torn, this will not let the learners feel free to come to school,” Nambara said.
It was however unfortunate that the schools he approached have a different colour for their uniforms than that of Tuguva Combined School. It was then initiated that the white shirts received would be dyed into the colour used by the school, which is grey.
All the teachers wanted to see learners in full decent school uniforms.
However, the situation of some learners without decent clothes and walking bare footed to and from school brought him great sympathy, thus he also requested for old clothes, some of it was received on Tuesday from Lüderitz and another consignment from Henties Bay was delivered. School board members and teachers will identify the learners who will benefit from the clothes.
Donated clothes belonging to mature people will be sold at a low price between N$5 to N$10, in order to raise some money to buy school uniforms.
Some teachers at the school have also volunteered to buy school uniforms from their own pockets to support this initiative
Once the uniforms are catered for, the rest of the clothes will then be distributed for free to the needy in the community.