Natasha Pre-Primary School - Katutura
Meme Meriam has been teaching the children of her area to prepare them as best as possible for the big school. This aids them, to keep the young children off the streets and give them a good start before starting grade 1. Meriam also provides the children with a meal so they can get all the energy they need to develop a strong body and mind.
The early stages are the most important in a child’s life and Meme Meriam has been a key element in many children’s lives for the past few years.
Natasha Pre-primary has been in dire need of repairs and maintenance and thanks to good Samaritans such as Brad and Jill Reynolds, the Gondwana Care Trust was able to assist Meriam in her renovations.
Natasha has been a beneficiary of the Back-to-School Christmas Bag and is also part of the MealForTwo Program.
Natasha pre-primary looks after an average of 30 children on a yearly basis.
The new classroom is operational!
PAY Centre
Physically Active Youth Namibia – Thuba 081 741 56 58
PAY Center is located at the Multipurpose Youth Complex in Katutura.
The Physically Active Youth Programme (P.A.Y), a registered non-governmental organization, is a community-based after-school project that focuses on the healthy development of young people in low income communities in the Centre of Windhoek (Katutura). The programme provides a safe and constructive platform for a supervised after-school environment for youth, helping to improve academic outcomes, decrease juvenile crimes and teenage sexual activity as well as substance abuse.
P.A.Y. Sports Programme includes Soccer (teams in the under 13, 15 and 17 age categories) , Cycling (Cycling for all – parents and learners • BMX • Elite cycling) with road and mountain bikes which aims to produce nationally competitive cyclists in Namibia.
PAY also has a Chess program. Chess is a mental sport whose value in the program is immense, in trying to raise critical thinkers and develop the learners’ ability to think outside the box, in life and in their approach to the circumstances they face. Lastly, PAY includes Swimming as a life skill sport. Every student that enters PAY has to be able to swim which is a non-competitive sport.
P.A.Y. Feeding Programme Provides 120 learners with a hot meal, two sandwiches and a fruit at the end of the day. For most of our learners this is the first meal of the day.
In order to add some vegetables to their diet, PAY also has a self-sufficient garden which provides some greens and other veggies in season. The students forming the Environment club look after the maintenance of the garden, but for the past years, the garden is now in dire need of TLC!
To provide new soil and proper nutrition for the ground (compost etc..), we are looking into a budget of over N$22 000.
Quotes can be viewed upon request including seeds, some tools and some much needed ground and compost.
If you are able to assist with this project, please contact caretrust@gcnam.com or donate using the reference PAY Garden.
Thank you for your assistance in helping us to revive the garden and also for enabling us to help the students in looking after the garden in the most efficient way possible with some training sessions in gardening.
Since our last newsletter we have received N$10 000.00 from a sponsor that wants to remain anonymous. Windhoek has received a fair amount of rain and the revamp will start as soon as the weather allows for it! We will provide the feedback when the revamp has been completed.
Please donate via the heart above, with your reference "Natasha" or "PAY".
We appreciate you!