Education, Nutrition, Health and Safety to 60 Kids

Hallo to all my dear friends

We are celebrating the first 10 years of Mammadu

2008 is the year I eventually move to Namibia and the idea to help orphans and children living in poverty gains a sound footing. Initial steps entail the official registration of the Mammadu Trust with the Ministry of Health of Namibia. Quite an extensive process to produce and deliver all the required documents and get them approved, but on 15^th July we are officially registered. Paola Ciarlante, a friend of mine and current Chairman of Mammadu Onlus in Italy designs our beautiful logo.

2009 sees the start of the long road of finding a suitable plot for our center. In the mean time our first project among orphans of creating a rugby team starts and is managed directly by myself until 2012. At that time all donations were saved for the purchase of the land. Bruno Cover designs our website www.mammadu.org.

2010 A dream comes true. The City of Windhoek approves the purchase of a 4700 square meter land in Otjomuise, at that time an unoccupied suburb on the outskirts of the city.

2011 Thanks to the confidence all of you had in the project we are able to build the first stage of our center. One classroom, kitchen and toilets. A special thank you goes to Johan du Toit of Windhoek Consulting Engineers who has supported Mammadu right from the start and to this day with the design of the building plans. The first children arrive at Mammadu at the beginning of September. Some of them (now teenagers) are still with us. At that stage we had NOTHING. The cooking was done with a solar oven and we sat on the floor.

2012 Our sports field (fortified with tyres) and garden are developed and we start our recycling project. The shed for garden tools is made from plastic bottles. It is also the first year of our pre-school project in the mornings and assistance with homework in the afternoons. 30 children in total. Support staff : a teacher who also doubled up as our driver and a cook who also did the cleaning and housekeeping. In the kitchen things also improved; we now have our first refrigerator and our first stove. Also tables and chairs for the classroom.

2013 We bought our first small bus to transport our children to school. It was a second/ third hand vehicle but it ran reliably and we were so proud of it. 40 children in total.

2014 Founding of Mammadu e.V in Germany, Chairman Hans-Joachim Weil and founding of Mammadu Onlus, Chairman Paola Ciarlante.

Addition of two more classrooms is possible thanks to donations from the Province of Trient and the Non-Profit Organization Nadir in Italy.

2015 Our old combi is really at its end and we are able to buy a brand-new Mercedes Sprinter 23 seater bus from donations from Germany. Now we can transport many more children to school. We also start our sponsorship program. Today almost all children have their own patron. A thank you goes to Elizabeth Wallner who initiates our women’s project. The women produce bags and baskets and lost more from plastic and paper, and the sale of the items enables them to support their families. Meme Arisa is employed to take care of hygiene and cleanliness.

2016 Thanks to support from the German Embassy an additional building can be erected. It is designed to serve as bakery under the direction of Pastor Mark of the Coptic Church of Namibia. We also celebrate our first wedding at Mammadu.

2017 Our program is extended even further. Since 2017 we not only have a pre-school class but also a Kindergarde for four-year olds. We now have 5 employees: Meme Dina our cook, Meme Arisa in charge of hygiene and cleanliness, teacher Yolande for our little ones in the mornings, teacher Lino for the supervision of the school children in the afternoons and our bus driver with a Class C driver’s licence who drives our school bus every day. 63 children in total. The idea to extend our program further is born and we continue saving.

2018 still needs to be lived through and experienced and reported on. We however hope to start building again soon because many of the children are now teenagers and have special needs. They require their own venues where they can study without being interrupted continuously by the younger kids. 

Thanks to all of you for helping us all these years and for all your support