Education, Nutrition, Health and Safety to 60 Kids

My dear friends!

How important it is to study and to learn!

I am more and more convinced that schooling and learning are the most important factors, which enable us to achieve something in life. One really has to try one’s best to motivate families and children to make use of all opportunities to become educated.

The first trimester of this school year has now been completed and the children really achieved good results. This was a great relief for me as I had already prepared myself for a few bad marks. But thanks to the efforts of our volunteers and of our staff and my continuous encouragement and motivation of the children, we can now see positive results.

Going to school is not always easy for any child. The science teacher of grate 4 frightens Aruma and some of the other children too. He is a big, strong man from the northern parts of Namibia and does not seem to have a very kind and friendly way of teaching. But he is after all the teacher and getting panic attacks the moment he enters the classroom does not help anyone to achieve good marks. Kevin does not like to study the Afrikaans language at all. Just because he does not perform well in that subject he hides himself in the restrooms during the Afrikaans class and plays and causes trouble there with other kids. To him this may seem like a temporary “funny“ solution to his problem but this is certainly not the purpose and spirit of attending school!! Generally, however, our children are weak in Afrikaans just because there is nobody at Mammadu who can speak the language well. This is why we decided to engage Mrs Jacobs since the beginning of May. She is always well prepared and has committed herself to helping those children who need assistance in studying Afrikaans this year.

We also purchased books on Natural Science and Geography. At school the children do not use books. They either copy notes from the chalkboard or they are provided with black-and-white photocopies. Children ‘s interest cannot be stimulated by copying notes or using photocopies. They need colourful pictures and photos in order to remember things and stimulate their imagination. Since our children have access to these books their joy of learning and interest in things has certainly increased.

Our youngest pre-school children also have a new teacher. The selection of an appropriate teacher has certainly not been easy. There are many trained pre-school teachers but their knowledge is often insufficient. We therefore decided to let the applicants write a general knowledge test. The results surprised us a lot.

To the question on where the sun rises and sets we received answers naming each and every direction in the sky, but the best answer was: in the morning and in the evening! How many continents are there? The answers varied from 6 to 34. For one applicant Brazil is situated in Europe with its capital city Morocco! While marking these tests I often did not know whether I should be laughing or crying!

Three of the approximately 20 applicants achieved an average of 50%. Well, for me that was better than nothing. They were subsequently invited for an interview and also asked to hold a class. One of the three did not even arrive and the other was 3 hours late. Thankfully the third one is perfect (at least we hope so) and we appointed her. So, we just have to hold thumbs that she is definitely the best!

Adequate training and education continue to be a general problem in Namibia.

This year the University in Windhoek, UNAM, has allocated three social studies students to do their practical at Mammadu. These three young female students are very motivated. They make me happy but also help us a lot. They do not only work with the children but also with their mothers and the woman of Mammadu. For example, they initiated role-plays with the woman in order to explain to them how important correct marketing techniques are, how one focuses on the clients, and how one addresses them. These students attempt to build the women’s self-confidence and our sales actually trebled when they were present at our last market!

Here I do have to add that our products are becoming more and more attractive. Our bags made from plastic bags are now exhibited and available for purchase in the shop of the National Museum.

The other day we celebrated Josia‘s birthday. His wish was to have the party at the swimming pool. And why not! But he is our unlucky bird and, true to form, we were surprised by a big storm and everyone had to be rushed from the pool. So as not to spoil Josia’s party completely we all went to KFC. I am certainly not in favour of fast foods but our children love it. Josia was happy and with a beaming smile he proclaimed that this had been his best birthday yet.

Our bakery has finally been completed and I am busy with the quotations for the purchase of the ovens and machines. Hopefully I can soon present you with our first Mammadu bread.

Italian food is our children’s all time favourite. The kids so to say “force” every volunteer to cook Italian dishes. However, by this time the kids are able to make their own pizza. They prepare the dough, kneed it, let it rise in the sun and then create their own toppings which they then eat with great relish. Every child is proud of its very own pizza. Perhaps one of them will become a pizza chef in our bakery when he or she is grown-up!

As always I wish to thank you for your help and support. Here as well as in Europe our Mammadu family is getting bigger and bigger and it is good to know that you are there for us.

A big kiss from all of us.