Education, Nutrition, Health and Safety to 60 Kids

Warm greetings to all my dear friends

The new facilities at Mammadu Center are finished building. After 2 months and 3 weeks of noise and a lot of dust and sand the new buildings are finished. Now we have a new eating area for the children where all of them can sit properly for their lunches and table manners can be practised. We have a new activity room for the older children so that they have their own space and don’t need to share spaces with the smaller children, we have e new classroom also for the older ones, where they can study and learn in peace and can have the highly desired silence and we have a new shaded parking area. This is truly a huge achievement for us and it only could happen thanks to all your help and assistance. We still need to get a few things like shelves but this still should happen before year-end so that in 2019 we can start properly and ready for new challenges.

Thanks to Bank of Namibia we also have five new fruit trees, they are still very small, same as some of our children, but they will grow and bear fruits and they will become proper trees hopefully like your children will become kind, educated and well behaved young people. It was very kind from Bank of Namibia to plant these trees at Mammadu, we had a little event in that occasion which actually the kids run as they were the hosts and they together with the staff and the volunteers really did a good job and I’m very proud of them. 

Some of the children started attending new private schools, they are very talented learners and I’m very glad that Mammadu can afford to pay school fees for them to provide them with a very good education. Obviously  there were some concerns about how the kids will cope in a new “rich” environment. As we all know children can be really nasty in accepting newcomers. The schools helped in integrating our children but still it’s not that easy as it depends on the kid’s character too. Conclusion one of our boys has been accepted with absolutely no problems, the other kids love him and his school results are very good, he participates in various programs offered by the school like Tennis and Chess, the other boy still struggles a bit, mostly because of a language problem, as he is attending a German class but it was his choice, so I think it will take a bit longer but he too will settle in. The girl, instead, is actually really struggling to find new friends, but was we all know girlies can be really very “b…y” and being a teen doesn’t help at all ! But I’m sure by next year these little adolescent problems will dissolve and things will get sorted.

Now the children are studying for their end of the year exams, staff and volunteers are packing Christmas Gifts and sorting the classrooms, we are nearly ready for our end of the year outing but about this next time. 

Greetings to all my dear friends!

There is a lot to tell you about.

On 16 June Mammadu was in charge of the Café at Green Market for the first time and we also provided all the snacks on the menu. When I applied for this opportunity at the beginning of the year I did not think it was a big deal, but when there were only a couple of weeks left till the due date I started questioning my decision because of the large amount of work and preparation involved. However, in the end it was a huge success and lots of fun. We had many helpers and many delicious contributions of cakes and other food items. The older children served at the tables and earned a nice sum of money from tips, which naturally makes them want to repeat this event. Well, perhaps we can think about it next year. 

Thanks to all the Sponsors: Gondwana for all the food, Carla De Klerk for the amazing chocolate cakes, Ida Alina Salleh for not just making muffins and cakes but also helping during the service, Bobbie Person for the vegetarian and gluten free products and for helping during the service, Inge Heiman Schlie for the best apple pie ever and the Kenyan Embassy for the savoury samosas. A huge thank you goes to all the volunteers, they baked, cooked, organised and help so much, Thank you Donna , Raphaela Dell, Elena Fort, Angela Baroni, Johanna, Nik, Luise. A huge thank you also goes to the children who helped on the floor and they did really an amazing job and got tipped. An enormous thank you goes to Elisabeth Wallner, she took care of all the money matters in a very serious way. Special Thanks go to Mammadu Staff too, Meme Dina, Yolande, MemeJohana and Daniel our Driver. And obviously an special tanks you goes to all our guests who came to our Cafe' and enjoyed our food. Thank you Green Market for this opportunity.

Since Mammadu’s main objective is to give the children an academic education and a good all-round general upbringing, we are very proud that 3 of our older children have been accepted in some of the best private schools. They are our best learners and passed the entrance examinations with flying colours. These private schools offer a final school certificate (the Abitur) which is accredited overseas and thus opens up study opportunities for them world-wide. This makes me feel very proud indeed. Since the provision of knowledge is unfortunately always expensive the school fees are high, but Mammadu’s mission is after all to enable children from poor households to also have a good education. 

Hertha Nekwaya is a Namibian author who has just published the book “Courage Wins”. She has generously offered the proceeds from the sale of the book to Mammadu. Almost all our kids who can already read, have read the book, laughing and crying as they went along! We have also received permission to turn the book into a “musical” and plan to perform it during our birthday celebration on 3 November. 

And yes, we are busy building once again. At the beginning of the year we did a survey among our children to find out about their wishes and needs for the future and how they evaluate and experience Mammadu. The following are some abstracts:

What about Mammadu could be different?

it would be good to have a separate place to eat, e. g a cafeteria. Some of the older children mentioned that the tables and chairs during meals, are too small. They wished for a designated eating area

How can Mammadu be more attractive for teenagers?

a classroom designated for only the older kids, a library with books for teenagers, both fiction and textbooks, computer room, a quiet space only available to the older children, instruments, TV-games, gardening, cooking and learning about food and nutrition. A few other ideas were workshops, e. g fixing bikes, furniture or cars. Several children wished for a swimming pool. Some also wished for gymnasticsclasses, and volunteers that had some special knowledge, e. g dancing, food or music. 

We consequently decided to build a dining hall with smaller and larger tables and chairs as well as the desired facilities for our teenagers. Teens understandably have their own interests and needs, and since we have more and more teens every year it is important to further their interests. A swimming pool would also be on my wish list, but that must remain a dream for the time being.

• Demographic Report 2018 (PDF)