RUNDU - Local tourism establishments in the Rundu Rural Constituency of the Kavango Region are making strides in empowering local communities through education.

One such establishment is Nkwazi Lodge located about 20 kilometers east of Rundu.

Valery and Wynand Pypers, owners of the beautiful lodge, told a visiting news crew that they also established a pre-primary school at Mayana Village in 2008 to enroll orphans and vulnerable children.

The husband-and-wife team, already in their retirement age, say they source funding from foreign donors mainly from Germany to cater for the educational and basic needs of the learners, adding that the family members of such learners do not contribute anything towards their educational and personal needs.

This year, the school enrolled 42 learners from Mayana and surrounding villages.

These kids, who are aged between three and six years, used to walk three kilometers to and from school each day.
Caretaker teachers Gertrud Singulwe and Siyamba Aune noted that the learners who do pre-primary school are more better off compared to those who start Grade 1 without going through pre-primary first.

The Pypers couple also take care of the educational needs of learners from Mayana Village who are studying at government schools at Rundu and even help raise funds to send learners to universities overseas and Namibia’s institutions of higher learning.
Peypers told reporters that the initiative aims at uplifting the living conditions of the best performing learners who live in close proximity to the lodge.

Peypers stressed that upon completion of their studies those learners will be able to take their families out of poverty once they start working.