A teacher’s plea unleashes acts of kindness
Jana-Mari SmithContributions have poured in from across Namibia in response to a teacher’s plea for help with donations for disadvantaged students at an Outapi school.
After her Facebook post unexpectantly went viral, life skills teacher Maria Namtenya Endjala-Shambwila says the school has received dozens of school uniforms, stationery and sanitary products. Donations continue streaming in, she said happily.
“By end of the month, I am sure all my learners will look good. I am so happy, so happy for the support. The donations are my backbone.”
To date, 21 individuals, companies, and charity organisations sent 37 trousers, 34 skirts, 15 pairs of shoes, 67 shirts, 15 jerseys, 12 pairs of socks, 104 sanitary pads, 123 bar soaps and one bag of washing powder.
Among those who have made donations so far are Angels' Paradise Academy, Northern Vision Centers, and Oleo Star Trading.
On 19 March, two days before Namibia celebrated 32 years of Independence, Endjala-Shambwila uploaded photos of some of her learners, their faces concealed, showing them wearing torn and threadbare school uniforms. While their faces were obscured, the photos revealed a story of severe poverty.
“These are some of my learners, and all I need is just school uniforms donations, sanitary pads, soaps, washing powders as well as body lotions or Vaseline. It is Oukwandongo Combined School, Outapi circuit,” she wrote.
Her Facebook post elicited hundreds of comments ranging from criticism, doubt, praise and offers of help, and was shared more than 6 600 times.
Unintended
The response surprised the author and teacher who had only intended to reach a few of her small number of Facebook friends.
“I decided to take a few pictures to share with my friends on Facebook. I don’t have a lot of friends on Facebook and asked them for a donation. I didn’t expect to go viral and I didn’t mean to bring any harm. It just happened.”
She explained that the post was prompted after two meetings with parents earlier this year, in which the school discussed their worries about some of the children, their sanitary conditions and the worn clothing.
She said children who come to school dressed in rags and lack access to basics such as soap and food, cannot learn.
“You can see it affects their ability to learn. I love happy learners, when you work with happy learners, they do the activities without any problems. But if a child is hungry, they cannot focus, they cannot learn. When a learner is happy, everything is good. There is progress.”
A charity club was launched, but only one soap was donated. Unable to pay for new uniforms and to buy other essentials such as soaps, sanitary pads and lotions, as the teachers had done over the past few years, Maria turned to the internet for help.
Severe lack
A letter provided to the education ministry in the aftermath of the Facebook post, indicates that Oukwandongo Combined School, situated about 25 km from the Outapi town centre and just 1.5 km from the Angolan border, is home to 1 163 learners.
The school offers pre-primary to grade 10.
The school informed the ministry that most learners are cared for by pensioners, who survive on government grants.
The school has identified 354 learners, aged 6 to 19-years-old, as especially vulnerable, lacking an array of necessities, including sanitary pads, uniforms, and soap.
Endjala-Shambwila said she came to the school in 2017, and immediately noticed that many girls failed to show up to school for a few days each month. When she approached them, they admitted that they stayed home when they menstruated, as they were using old clothes instead of pads.
“I decided, let me buy a box of pads from my own pocket, and I will teach these learners how to use the pads.”
When she approached one girl, to show her how to use the pads, the girl informed her she did not have any underwear. “Imagine, for a girl child not to even have underwear.”
She says teachers have often had to intervene when they notice children asleep in class – when asked whether they are ill, the children say they are hungry. Teachers then buy bread from a nearby cuca shop.
Ministry of education executive director Sanet Steenkamp says the ministry has been informed of the situation of the learners and has engaged role players to see how best to support the children going forward to help “ease their plight.”
She said “it is indeed with great sadness and a certain level of discontent that we are learning that there are still so many children out of the 830 000 learners in this country, one-third of this population, that children are still not getting what they deserve. To be treated with dignity and respect by the parents and community members, to be taken care of and for their basic needs to be met for them to learn and grow up happy young children.”
She urged teachers to ensure that when taking videos or photos, the children and their parents’ consent is given, and to ensure the dignity of all involved is maintained.