Over recent weeks the NZ All White team had a whole school cheering for them in the most remote corner of Namibia!

The Ehomba School Principal Mr Zauana told us with great delight that the children were thrilled to see that their friends in NZ had a great soccer team.  They sat attentively through our games and cheered with equal enthusiasm as for their own African States! These kids are football mad. They play in bare feet and are amazing.  Each year the classes now play for the Jenny Shipley Cup!  If you were there you would think it was the world cup itself!  We really do live in a global world where soccer is one of the common languages!  We will see them soon when we visit at the end of July and as usual with have some new soccer balls and whistles on board.

We will visit our special Ehomba School again in July.  Burton, myself, Mary and Garry and our daughter Anna and her husband Andrew are on the team and will work for a week at the school in late July and early August. 

As usual we have some funds that we have raised over recent times to buy key equipment, invest in these delightful children and ensure that their prospects moving forward are positive.  As we plan our travel we proudly continue to maintain the commitment that all monies we raise for the Namibian Education Trust go to the children of Namibia.

Schools Priorities for 2010

Recently we invited Mr Zauana to tell us what the teachers priorities were for 2010.  We were highly delighted when he came back and said that the headman of the local tribe had met with the School Board of Trustees and while they are delighted as locals with the progress that the children are making, they were worried about the fact that the local language was not being learnt to the same extent as English.  They asked if we could provide one set of textbooks in the local language.  We recognise this as a very high priority and are pleased to report that now a full school set of workbooks at the appropriate levels and in the local language have been acquired for the school and are in the classrooms.

Teaching the teachers

Mary Green, our education advisor for the Education of Namibian Trust last year ran a very successful teacher training programme.  It has been met with such acclaim that this year 30 teachers want to travel to Ehomba during our visit so that Mary can run a two and a half day workshop with them.  Mary is a specialist in phonics and her teaching methods have been a revelation to the teachers in Ehomba and the surrounding areas.  The Ministry of Education is supporting this project by transporting the teachers from very long distances so that they can attend this seminar.  Some of the others of us will be caterers and support people while the seminar is held.  The teachers and the local inspectors have identified this as one of the most beneficial areas that we can assist them with through our exchange and support, and we are very happy to do so.

Garden exceeds expectations!

The garden continues to be a great success.  The teachers and learners visit the garden at 4 o’clock each afternoon, and it continues to produce a surprising amount of food that supplements the children’s previously single Pap meal a day which is a type of maize porridge.  This year we are trying to source some sweet potato legume that the Namibian agricultural department has been developing and which are disease and drought resistant.   We are hoping that we can get a stock of these and teach the teachers and children how to plant and harvest them while we are there.  As well as that we want to show them how to collect seed so they can keep producing without the need to buy seed. Burt and Garry have extension plans for the irrigation system and I have no doubt the well and water system will also entertain them!

Bookshelf Working Bees

The teachers want shelving for the classrooms is a key priority, and so Burton and Garry in addition to the extension of the irrigation system for the garden are undertaking a major exercise of producing a number of bookshelves that will be available both for the children and the teachers.  We will let you know how we get on.  But it is a complicated project in so far as wood is a risk because of the termites.  Nothing is every simple in Namibia! We love learning about things that would in the normal course of events not cross our minds!

Scholarship Students

I hope to visit some of the 8 children who we now fund on scholarships for their secondary education. These children now live over a 100 kilometres away from their families and don’t get home or have any contact except at term holidays. This is not a matter of complaint as they prize the chance to have a secondary education which would otherwise not be possible.

We will keep you posted.

Mary’s work with the teachers at Ehomba is already paying off in learners results which is fantastic! The headmaster informs us , and I quote “our learners can read, sound and build sentences from the letters words eg the grade 1 improve from 30% -55%, grade 2: 40% -55%, grade 3: 40% -75% Grade 4: 40% -78% this is a fantastic beginning.”  He further goes on to comment,   “The guidelines were very helpful to us, because the teacher and learners are visiting the library and upper grades are improving in reading.  The teacher from the surrounding schools who attended the jolly phonic workshop which Mary conducted during our last visit, have decided to come up with jolly phonic club starting next year.”

We are delighted that the training has inspired the teachers and is delivering results for learner!

GARDEN A BIG SUCCESS

You will remember that we have put a big effort into establishing a garden as the children only had one meal of pap a day. They write and I quote “The garden is improving a lot! Every day from 16h00 – 17h00 teachers and learners are working in the garden. We got a lot of fruits eg tomatoes, and vegetables such as spinach, cabbages,  carrots, onions as well as meals. Learners are real getting real assistance of food from the garden.”

MR ZAUANA IS BACK AT EHOMBA

Mr Zauana has returned to the school after a years study in South Africa. He has done very well and has passed his exams. We are very proud of him, have noticed a big improvement in his approach to many issues and his English has also improved. He completed a computer course while he was away which will be of great assistance to the school going forward.

THE EMAIL WORKS AT LAST!

After 18months work we know have direct communication with Ehomba School via email. This is a huge break through! The solar energy system we funded and had installed is working very well, supporting the equipment but the telecom system had alluded us until now. We have a new member of our team, Frank who lives about 100kms away but has been to the school, has got us wired and has trained the teachers to use the email, so we are in business! It is such a break through as long as the sun shines so that the panels keep the system fired up. We have such fun waking up to messages from teachers about their most recent achievements. The joys of Africa!

VISITS TO THE SCHOOL

We had a terrific visit to Ehomba in June and intend to return in 2010 in July and early August. This year the focus of the outside work was the irrigation system for the garden which has been a huge success. Mary ran a number of training programmes with the teachers, which is now delivering some terrific results. In 2010 we will focus on some shelving in classrooms and seating outside. We will do further training of our Ehomba teachers as well as teachers from the cluster. These teachers are so committed to these children and live in such remote circumstances that they have earned our unlimited respect and we love them to bits!

SCHOLARSHIPS

In 2008 we awarded 4 scholarships to students who had finished their 7 grade, to go to secondary school as boarders. We pay their study fees, their boarding fees and a small uniform allowance. The children do not have the option locally as there is no secondary school though we hope that they Government will agree to extend Ehomba from 2011. In the meantime these children are now studying at boarding school about 110 kms away form Ehomba. They have all done very well in 2009, passing their exams, so we will continue to support them during 2010. We have also agreed to fund another 4 students to begin in 2010 and as long as they do well we will continue to support them through their secondary school years.

FUNDRAISING ONGOING

We have held several fundraising events in 2009. Our annual dinner was a great success with 200 people attending and funds raised exceeded $80,000 form the dinner and auction. We have also spoken to other audiences around the country including the Gore Dinner Club, the Orewa Zonta Club and the Canterbury NZIM all of whom have made generous donations to the trust. If you would like to make a donation to this work the details are above.

This year the Trust is supporting Mr Zauana, the headmaster of Ehomba School as he advances his studies in South Africa. It is our hope that the school will go to secondary school over the coming years, and Mr Zauana is doing some advance studies that will enhance his ability to administer the school as that happens. The Trust is paying for his tuition fees and his accommodation while he is in South Africa. We believe it is a marvellous investment in the future of the children and the region and are proud of the role that our supporters have played in our being able to make this contribution!

NEWS

It has rained!!! The rains have come in Northern Namibia and the children to their great delight have planted the garden. The ground was so hard after the school site had been used as a military base that it was impossible to dig the dirt until the rains came. The rainy season has been kind in so far as good volumes of water have fallen over a sustained period of time. We have a double fenced garden area 40 mtrs by 60 mtrs and have provided a wide variety of seeds and equipment so that the garden can be planted. Our future concern is that the water system is not yet fully repaired, so while a garden should flourish in the latter part of this wet season, our next effort will be getting a sustainable water supply so the garden can be managed 24/7. The teachers and the children are very excited as at present they only have one meal of mealie maze a day!

You will be pleased to know that the generosity of our donors has allowed the donkey to be employed, along with the plough that broke through this incredibly hard dirt and this made this large garden area now a viable arable plot.

Your generosity has and will continue to help us make progress.

You would all have been highly amused if you could have seen us arriving at Ehomba in the same vehicle that I travelled in on the 2007 Intrepid Travel documentary. We were a group of eight: my darling and ever patient Burton, our daughter Anna and her boyfriend Andrew, our son Ben and his girlfriend Chelsey and our very good friends and fellow Trustee Gary Green and his wife Mary. George, our guide who had travelled with me in 2007, had literally taken the truck apart so he could get a photocopier in. We also took rugby, soccer, netball and volleyballs as well as hula hoops, skipping ropes and many, many reading books of different varieties, laptops and projectors, food and many other treats for the children. Ben had commissioned 5,000 pencils and pens  with Ehomba School written on them and you would have thought that we had given them a treasure in offering these children a pencil with their own school identity written on it.

We had an amazing few days at the school and with many, many special moments. One morning at an early assembly they insisted that we put the two flags that we have taken for them, a new large bright vibrant Namibian flag and a New Zealand flag together which we hoisted up the flagpole, which is kindly left in the school yard courtesy of the South African Army.  These children addressed this flag with great reverence, and it touched my heart as I watched those flags rise against a beautiful Namibian morning sky { school starts at 7am and we were there on time!}. A significant number of them were in bare feet, had only had one meal a day and their state of clothing was much less than the poorest child in New Zealand would experience, and yet their hope and pride was obvious to see.

The Infrastructure

A comprehensive solar energy system is now in place, and the school buildings and the dormitories for the children, plus the kitchen area now have electricity. They also now have a photocopier, facsimile machine, computers and projector now available to use in the six classrooms on the Ehomba site.

We are also in the process of reviewing the water supply at the school, with a view to establishing an irrigation system in a 60 m x 40 m fenced off garden area. Water is a big challenge and at present the school has only one tap with limited water pressure that supports not only the school but also some of the surrounding community so this goal of a garden is an ambitious one. The spring that feeds the water supply for the school, and the well associated with it has not been repaired for some time, however we have a big team of experts and officials in Namibia focusing on this and I am hopeful that we will get it resolved shortly.

The children and teachers

The children are a complete joy, they expect so little and whatever you do for them they are almost overwhelmed in appreciation. The title for pupils in Namibia is “learners” and this is a very apt title as their keenness and enthusiasm for learning and engaging with new things is second to none. We have also been impressed with how capable the teachers are and are very optimistic that through further support and encouragement significant modernisation of teaching techniques can occur to the benefit of the children’s English, which is the official language in Namibia, as well as their local dialects.

Of the 139 students who are at Ehomba School, 56 of them are either orphaned or what they call marginalised children, mainly due to HIV/Aids, or for one reason or another do not have their own parents as their guardian.  I completely admire the Principal of the School who works so closely with these families, and he and his wife effectively offer pastoral care to at least one third of these children.  All but about 20 of the children live at the school from Sunday night to Friday at lunchtime, and about 23 of the students stay over most weekends except in term holidays because it is too far for them to walk home and then walk back each weekend.  The fartherest away student walks just on 40 kms to school, and it is not uncommon at all for the students who attend school on a weekly basis to walk up to 20 kms home at the weekend where they stay for just over 24 hours and then walk back again.

It is very clear that some of the talented students as they complete grade 7 potentially deserve to be offered a scholarship to go to one of the best schools in Windhoek to complete their secondary school education and potentially go on to a tertiary study. We are currently looking into this and feel that it is an important way for us to demonstrate the value of schooling.

We left the children with all sorts of vibrant teaching material, photographs of themselves, a cup to compete for in terms of their soccer, vibrant pictures on the walls and all sorts of other nice positive opportunities to enrich the learning environment, however the basic nutrition of the children is still an obvious deficiency, and so the water and subsequently a sustainable garden is our next phase of development.

Wildlife and conservancy

Over the winter, the ongoing conservancy program in the northern parts of Namibia has seen the release of wildlife including giraffe, kudu and zebra. This had been a highlight for the children, who all had stories of seeing the animals drinking at the river.  The Namibian Government is trying to balance off traditional pastoral farming techniques with the semi nomadic Himba people, and re-establishing the vibrancy of the conservancy.  I have hopes that cultural and eco tourism, along with pastoral farming may be a possibility in this area.  There are several significant mines and also some hydro activity and with some astute leadership and management within the Government, it is possible that a viable economy over and above subsistence farming might emerge and one in which the educated students of the Ehomba School may be able to contribute to the future success of their region.  Certainly that is my ambition.

Namibian support

We met with the Minister of Education while in Windhoek and he hosted us to the Windhoek A&P Show which I must say an extremely positive experience despite my scepticism.  Agriculture in Namibia, despite the arid nature of the country is extremely successful, and the quality of the cattle we saw there would grace any New Zealand A&P Show very successfully.  There was also all sorts of innovation in terms of utilisation of limited water resource, shade cloth techniques, trickle irrigation and hydroponic farming to name but a few.

While in Namibia, we also discovered is that while Ehomba School is the hub school of a cluster, there are another 450 students in 10 satellite schools that surround the hub school of 139 students.  So our family is slightly larger than we thought, but the potential to help more children in this northern Namibian region is very real. The Government seems extremely enthusiastic and committed that having acquired a partner and having made such significant investment in educational assets in the school that they are committed to leveraging this both in protecting these assets but also seeing that they service them and fund the operating costs of them for the benefit of the students, the school and the wider cluster.

Next steps

We all feel privileged to be associated with this project and amazing group of learners and teachers and to be able to help some children in Africa directly. There are many other challenges in the health and nutrition area that we have hardly even scratched the surface on, but we feel as if we can see a pathway forward and we remain very committed to doing what we can.

We hope that you will remain interested in this project and if you would like to make a further donation or support the scholarships or water projects please email burton@jsnz.com

In the meantime, with warm regards,

Jenny Shipley