Support for Omaruru’s Taking Hands
The Ambassador of the Federal Republic of Germany in Windhoek, Dr. Thorsten Hutter, last week visited the new Taking Hands Educational Centre in the Hakahana township in Omaruru.In 2023 the German Embassy in Windhoek provided a grant of N$432 000 to the Taking Hands Trust to build a new inclusive daycare centre. Additional funding came from Taking Hands Namibia-Deutschland e.V. and Samaritan’s Purse.
The existing centre had been temporarily accommodated on the premises of a local church and proved too small to facilitate the growing number of children.
The new Taking Hands Educational Centre now offers early childhood development to about 40 children and after-school support to about 90 children. It also offers schooling to ten children with disabilities, as the centre serves as a place where children with and without disabilities learn how to communicate with each other, accept each other, learn and play together.
Headmistress Brigitte Bredenkamp presented the premises to Ambassador Hutter, which boasts a sewing workshop, several classrooms, a computer room, an office, toilets, a playground, a kitchen and sufficient space for the children to enjoy the meals provided by the centre.
The new centre has also incorporated a therapy room. Therapy is provided by qualified occupational therapist Andrea Bertelsmann and physiotherapist Alec Nyanhete to children with disabilities according to their special needs.
Dr Hutter applauded the commitment of the social workers, teachers and staff of the centre to improve the daily lives of these children.