Reaching out to Amarika

The Queen of Ongandjera Adelheid Mupiya, along with her friends, demonstrated their support to Saara Lukas and five other young ladies who returned to school in their early 20s.

The queen and her friends collected scores of clothing items from Windhoek and Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia and donated them to the impoverished community of Amarika in solidarity with of young ladies who returned to school.

“What these young ladies have done is worth commending and should receive the support of every Namibian. We organised these donations to show that we are supporting them and would like others to emulate their move. Education is needed for everyone. We also went to encourage their parents and guardians to give them support,” Mupiya said

The wife of a former Namibian diplomat to Malaysia, Maria Shikongo, used her four-year stay in Malaysia to collect clothing. She told Namibian Sun that since she returned home in August this year, she collected scores of clothes, shoes, toys and linens from her friends and colleagues here and abroad for the marginalised people in Namibia.

“I collected and when I returned home I started thinking where to take them. In October I took some items to the Otjomuru, Otjikojo and Ohaihuwa villages in the Kunene Region. When the Queen of Ongandjera who told me the story of the Amarika ladies who returned to school after so many years, we decided to donate to show our support for them and their community at large,” Shikongo said.

She said that some of the items are second-hand, but some are brand new. Like Shikongo, Mupiya also maintained that she collected the clothing items from her friends in Windhoek to donate to marginalised communities in Ongandjera. She said the donation to Amarika was necessitated by the story of Saara Lukas and other ladies who returned back to school after many years of absence.

This year Namibian Sun reported that six young ladies, all former learners of Amarika Primary School resumed school this year after staying home for around ten years because their former school only offered classes to Grade 4. Last year Amarika Primary School was granted immediate curriculum extension approval up to Grade 8 this year and then, Saara Lukas, 23, Ottillie Johannes, 20, Lyidia Ipinge, 19, Josephina Gabriel and Ottillie Jonas, both 17, and Leena Kashenye 16 decided to return back to school to continue their education.

“We were told that some of these ladies have small babies. They leave them at their houses and find them after school. This means that they need our support and apart from the donations we also had time to talk to these ladies and their parents just to motivate them not to drop out, but to work hard. We gave them school uniforms and clothes for them and their babies,” said Mupiya.

Mupiya said to show their support to these community, they donated to every inhabitant of Amarika, young and old. The donation event was attended by Amarika Primary School principal, Abraham Haukelo, Otamanzi councillor Johannes Iyambo, Senia Endjala, an economic planner attached to the Office of the Vice-President and senior leaders of Ongandjera Traditional Authority.

In October, Endjala told Namibian Sun that the Office of Vice-President has offered a N$500 monthly grant as financial support these six young ladies.

ILENI NANDJATO