Relief for Kunene learners

The Omuhonga school in the Ovahimba and OvaZemba communities in the Epupa circuit in Kunene, has been upgraded from a primary school where learners used to sleep and live in self-made shelters out in the open to one with a fully-fledged hostel.A German tourist travelling through the region raised funds to construct a hostel for the school and since then, the Kunene education directorate extended the school curriculum from grade 1 to 7 to grade 1 - 9, and the school is currently attracting learners from all over the region.In 2015, the media exposed the sorry state of affairs of the school and a German citizen that had been to the place, donated money to have a 200-room hostel, kitchen, toilet facilities, three additional classrooms and six rooms for teachers' accommodation constructed at the school Omuhonga.According to the school principal, Kanova Kakuva, the numbers of learners have doubled from 157 to 320. He added that German citizens continue to support the best learners at school by offering them bursaries to continue their studies at private schools in the country.“This is now a new problem we created for ourselves. We put the school on the map and we have a hostel. Now Omuhonga is attracting learners from everywhere in the region. The school has grown to a combined school with 320 learners. We are getting learners as far as from Sesfontein, Uros, Onyuva, Epupa which brings new challenges,” Kakuva said.Kakuva said the hostel is getting support from tourists and the business community, but government has also subsidised it. He added that last year the school added grade 8 and this year, grade 9 was added.In 2015, after the media reported about primary school learners sleeping in the open at Omuhonga, a German tourist Wolfgang Fiedler raised funds in collaboration with Okangwati resident, Gisela Horn, to assist the children.When the hostel was handed over in November of that year, Fiedler said he first learnt about Omuhonga Primary School in 2013 while visiting Namibia and travelling to Epupa Falls. In July of that year, when the situation of the learners of Omuhonga was exposed, Horn a member of Projekt Kaokoland, wrote over 300 letters to prospective donors in Germany asking for assistance.“Out of those over 300 letters I wrote, only Mr Fiedler responded, saying that he knew the school and he is going to help,” said Horn.The Germans, through the Projekt Kaokoland, have awarded scholarships to two of the best learners from Omuhonga currently schooling at the private Martin Luther High School in Omaruru in the Erongo Region. According to Kakuva, these are Riauanisa Kapika, grade 9 and Kazu Ngehupe, grade 10 and he said they are progressing well.Kakuva told Namibian Sun he had taken the decision to accommodate learners out in the open at the school in order to grant them their constitutional right to education. He had to make the difficult decision to have the learners under his supervision sleep in the open and in harsh conditions, as attendance was a problem due to long distance to school, as well as the traditional belief of the Himba to have children look after livestock. ILENI NANDJATO

Relief for Kunene learners

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Namibian Sun 2025-07-02

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Relief for Kunene learners

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Namibian Sun 2025-07-02

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