By Patty Pippen
Social Studies Teacher
Since 2010 we have been connected to a rural school in Namibia and now I’m sharing Africa with a new generation.
It all started innocently enough. We planned to travel with extended family to a destination that we let our children choose. The choice? Namibia. It turned out to be more than a vacation but a place we would return to and support through the years. The first trip included aunts and nephews and cousins all intent on discovering a new place in the world. We went with the purpose to learn about animal conservation, rural school life, and of course, we wanted to see the wildlife. We did see lions, elephants, cheetahs, and zebras, but we also returned with a commitment to make a continued difference in a small way to the school we visited.
With enthusiasm, my son’s 6th grade class held a bracelet and rooibos tea sale in February 2011 to raise money for orphans and the poorer students’ school fees. Everyone at Lakehill, from teachers to senior students to kindergarteners, lined up in the cold mornings to drink free samples of rooibos tea (a Fair Trade, completely pure, caffeine-free, organic tea grown in Namibia) and buy a Himba bracelet (made from recycled PVC pipe). Boxes of shirts and jackets were sent, along with the $1100 raised in the fundraiser, to the students in Namibia.
The following year, the 7th grade class sold handmade beaded bracelets and African art, including animal woodcarvings and soapstone sculptures. Packets of the popular tea were sold once again. That year, we were able to send even more money to support the orphans and any children who could not afford school fees and school supplies. Many letters of thanks were posted to the class and read during class meetings. Lakehill students got to see first hand the beauty of their kindness and caring for someone less fortunate.
In addition to raising money for the eleven orphans we committed to fund, we identified a need for classroom sets of books so that teachers could advance the reading comprehension skills of the students. The school teaches all classes in English beginning in the primary school years so most students speak and read English.
Each year during the last week of school, Lakehill students donated their used paperback books that had been studied through the school year. My older son obtained and sent corresponding teacher guides and student study guide tools to the Namibian teachers for each collected book title. These could be used for student self-study or for the teachers to guide the students as they used the donated books.
Lakehill students learned that the children in Namibia led lives very similar to theirs, striving every day to be good citizens in their schools, homes, and community. Very positively, our students learned about the world in which we live.
Fast forward to 2014: My older son and I travelled to Rundu, Namibia to deliver books, clothing, and school supplies. We also donated funds for the orphans that had been supported for the past five years. The library was expanded and organized. Lakehill’s Parent Faculty Club (PFC) spirit shop, bookstore, generous families, and our school contributed a large amount of clothing and books. By the end of our stay, we were able to sort and distribute over 800 pieces of clothing, which was enough to give one or two items to every student in the entire school, 1st through 10th grades.
The Lakehill students who started all that giving years ago are now juniors in Upper School. I now teach full-time at Lakehill, and offer an Upper School elective: Africa is Not a Country, which guides students through current issues in Africa, from wildlife poaching to civil conflict, to the HIV epidemic, to expanding deserts. The years of our family’s and Lakehill’s commitment most tellingly paid off when we met with the eleven orphans who have been supported for these last years: all are still in school and are motivated to continue to perform well. They have lost their parents to war and AIDS and disease; yet, through the support that continued through the years, they kept coming to school and pursuing their academic journey. One of the orphans was not present, not for a sad reason, but for a jubilant one: she had so excelled academically that she was chosen to go to a government upper school for the most gifted students in the country where she is receiving an all-expense-paid higher education. The principal and administration are proud to have such a distinguished student and told us it could not have happened without our funds that supported her.
