Education, Nutrition, Health and Safety to 60 Kids

Warm greetings to all my dear friends

The school holidays at the end of the first trimester have just ended. Even though the schools are closed, Mammadu stays open so that those kids who are not sent to their rural villages to herd goats and cattle have some holiday entertainment and activities.

One of the highlights of these school holidays was Mago Tony, a magician and the founder of the Non Profit Organization Magic Brother World. He travels the world entertaining children, using his magic to stimulate the imagination of children, and also focusing on orphans, children with handicaps and those from impoverished backgrounds. He contacts the local magicians in the countries he visits and provides them with training so that his projects can continue to develop and expand – and all this at no cost at all. 

Mago Tony found us on the internet and visited us together with a colleague Hans Nordsiek. His tricks are nothing special and cannot be compared to those of Houdini or Dynamo; they are more like children’s part tricks, but Mago Tony superbly succeeds to bowl everyone over with his magical flair. The children were so enthusiastic and inspired! Such pure joy! Their amazement and excitement were unbelievable, while for me it was more fun just to watch the kids. I can definitely recommend Mago Tony. Find him at his Facebook site 

And while we are busy with what is magical and unbelievable, here is something very special:

Previously I mentioned that one of our children attends the German School. This young boy is very talented and chose to attend the German stream of the school where all the subjects are taught through the medium of German rather than through the medium of English, so that he can obtain the German school leaving Abitur which will give him better opportunities for further university studies. He obviously has a hard time coping with learning German. Consequently it was his wish to stay at the school’s residence where he is exposed to German throughout the day, and the school also recommended this. The problem however was that Mammadu was not able to afford the high costs of the residence. Naturally it was also my personal wish to enable the child to stay at the residence where he can be in a German environment, has three meals a day, running cold and hot water, and and and… So we tried to negotiate different possibilities, going back and forth and here and there. The school granted us a discount and a certain lady offered to donate a monthly amount, but all this was not enough. Our young boy wrote letters asking for assistance and we sent them to various potential supporters. He even gave a short talk motivating his need for financial assistance, which must have demanded a lot of his courage …. but nothing happened.

….. and then, just before the schools re-opened a large group of tourists visited us. We showed them Mammadu and explained what we do for the children. The tourists played with the children and talked to them, took photos and simply had a good time. And then, just before the group was about to get into their bus again and continue their journey, their leader handed me envelope, explaining that it contained a donation which the tour group had collected for us, even before they had visited Mammadu. And, this unexpected donation was exactly the outstanding amount we needed for our young boy’s stay at the school’s residence.

Is this coincidence? Magic? God’s hand?

You cannot imagine this child’s joy. We are now covered for this year and he can stay at the residence. We have to see how we manage next year, always one step at a time.

Links:

• In case you want to contact Mago Tony

Daniel, the driver of our bus has left us. Unexpectedly, from one day to the next. One Thursday he was not feeling well and we sent him to hospital, which referred him to a clinic where he was given pills and cough syrup. And the next morning Daniel was dead. It was a huge shock for all of us. Daniel was one of the most modest, friendly and amiable people I have ever met. Always helpful, courteous, always smiling and always so loving towards the children. 51 years old. We think he must have had a heart attack, but are not certain. He lived on his own and had no children. We all suffered a lot under the loss of this good man. Personally I feel sad that he was all alone, no one to hold his hand, no one to be there with him during his last hours, his last minutes. On that Friday none of our children attended school. All of us were deeply struck by death’s presence passing us so close-by. 

Dear Daniel, you will stay in our hearts and in our prayers forever.

While looking for a new driver, our new manageress Mimma drove the bus and took the children to school. Mimma, our super-woman, does not allow herself to be put off by anything. She casually slipped from her sandals into sneakers and hopped into our Mercedes Sprinter for which a driver requires a Level C Drivers Licence. And all this at 6 o’clock in the morning! What a relief and support to have this woman on our Mammadu team.

These days hunger -  yes: hunger,  believe it! -  is still a huge problem in the capital city and all over Namibia . Again and again our children’s families actually have nothing to eat. The children become very weak, fall asleep in school, and can sometimes not even attend school because they lack the strength and energy. The severe hunger causes them to suffer from stomach pains and headaches, and sometimes they do not even want to drink anything because the fluids in an empty stomach make them nauseous. Such situations are heart breaking and horrifying. Something must then be done immediately in order to offer some form of relief to avert the worst-case scenario and subsequently to plan for a more secure future.  A mother, alone with three daughters, without work, separated from the children’s father who does not support them at all. The daughters between 8 and 13 years of age. Mother leaves the hut at dawn, looking for work or at least something to eat, and only returns late at night. The daughters, when not at school or at Mammadu, are alone and are left to their own devices. We decided to take action, and after analysing the situation together with the mother and our social worker, we decided to support this family. We bought cooking utensils so that the mother can start her own small business. She now cooks fish and chips and sells it in her neighbourhood. This allows her to spend more time at home with her daughters and earn her own livelihood. We bought her a small generator, a potato cutter and the first groceries to get started. I am aware that this intervention does not comply with our basic objective of providing an education for poverty-stricken children, but it was impossible not to do something about this tragic situation. I therefore wish to thank all of you for your continuous financial contributions, which allow us to render assistance in extraordinary and extreme cases such as these. 

As always I want to thank each and everyone for all your help and support. Our Mammadu family is getting bigger and bigger here as well as in the rest of the World and it is good to know that you are there for us. 

A big hug from all of us.