Tanja Bause
25 July 2011
Windhoek — ANA Cornelia Pater lives in the Otjozondjupa Region, not far from Omakako village where she looks after about 30 San children who attend the primary school and feeds another 40 needy children three times a day.
She is originally from Romania and came to Namibia with her church group to do volunteer work. On the property of the Pilgrim Project a little primary school and hostel were built by volunteers from across the world, but mainly from Romania.
“We had a very bad storm in December and the roofs of the main hall, showers and classrooms were blown off or damaged,” says Pater.
This has put them back a bit but not broken their spirit: the main goal is to build a secondary school for San children as the nearest one is at Tsumkwe about 100 km away, or Grootfontein more than 200 km away.
“The San are traditionally a family tribe and they are very attached to each other and when they have to go away to a hostel many drop out and return home as the homesickness gets too strong, but if we can build a secondary school here it is close enough for them to at least be able to go home over weekends and this should curb the dropout rate,” says Pater.
It is not certain when the school will be finished as Pater relies on donations from overseas and volunteers to do the work, but once finished the school should be able to accommodate up to 100 children.
The project also has a vegetable garden from which the soup kitchen gets fresh vegetables, but it is also used to introduce the San children to agriculture.
The organisation bakes fresh bread daily to feed the 40 children who eat at the soup kitchen three times a day.
The bread is baked in a special oven which was invented and built by one of the volunteers. Legs were welded onto an old oil drum, a grid placed inside to put the bread on and coals are then heaped on top and underneath the drum.
Pater can bake 12 loaves in one go. “You can also use the miracle oven to bake cookies or make pizzas,” she says.
AllAfrica – All the Time
View original post here:
With Love From Romania