Hostel a threat to lives

The Kavango West education directorate continues to subsidise a dilapidated church hostel at Nkurenkuru, despite a 2010 directive by the health ministry that it must be closed down.

The Nkurenkuru Evangelical Lutheran Church in Namibia (Elcin) hostel, which is in a terrible state, accommodates about 250 learners from several schools in the area.

The hostel was built from clay by Finnish missionaries in the 1960s.

Namibian Sun uncovered this week that the ministry of health and social services had instructed the church in 2010 to close the hostel.

This was after inspections were done.

The church was told it could resume its hostel operations once renovations had been completed and the environment was hygienic.

All this is contained in a letter dated 28 January 2010, signed by then Kavango regional health director Elizabeth Muremi and addressed to Bishop Sindano Johannes.

“This letter serves to inform your office that an inspection was conducted on 26 January 2010, subsequent to an initial inspection conducted in 2009,” the letter reads.





“Both inspections revealed unsatisfactory hygienic condition and dilapidated structures which pose serious risks to learners accommodated on these premises. The hostel should therefore cease operations on 5 February 2010 until the unsatisfactory conditions are fully rectified.”

Muremi said further that “any continued use of the premises constitutes an offence in terms of the Public Health Act of 1919 and the General Health Regulations of 1969, as amended”.

“This is to prevent loss of life and (an) economic disaster.”

Church pastor Ernest Karuyeva told Namibian Sun that the church had initially complied with the directive and ceased its hostel operations.

However, the parents of the learners complained and demanded that the church reopen the hostel.

Karuyeva said many of the learners came from villages about 15 kilometres from schools, and because there was no government hostel in the area, parents with learners accommodated in the church hostel did not have a problem with it.

Karuyeva explained that as much as the church was willing to close the hostel, there was nowhere else for the children to go.

“Some people think we are accepting these learners because we want to make money from them, but the reality is that if we today decide that the learners should go, we are worried about where they will go, because there is no hostel to accommodate them,” Karuyeva said.

“The church has a lot of responsibilities and we would be so relieved if the hostel part was closed down. The government can even come today and take the learners, we will be happy.”

Karuyeva said the subsidy they receive from the ministry mostly caters for food and other expenses, such as water and electricity bills and hostel staff salaries.

He stressed that if the church used the government subsidy to renovate the buildings, there would be no food for the children.

Karuyeva added that the subsidy was cut from N$22 to N$15 per learner per day last year.

Kavango West education director Teopolina Hamutumua said they were doing inspections at hostels in the region, including the Mpungu Elcin hostel, the Rupara Elcin hostel, the Nkurenkuru Elcin hostel and the Mururani community hostel.

Hamutumua said the findings would be shared with the health ministry, which would then recommend what should happen next.

When asked why the ministry continued to subsidise the Nkurenkuru Elcin hostel despite the directive from the health ministry to shut it down, Hamutumua said as much as her directorate wanted the learners out of the church hostel, they had no alternative.

Hamutumua said the ministry could stop paying the subsidy, but that would mean that the learners would drop out of school.

“If we stop the subsidy it means no more school for those learners who are accommodated at the hostel, because they will not have a place to stay at Nkurenkuru,” Hamutumua said.

A feasibility study on building a hostel on land west of the Nkurenkuru Combined School was conducted in 2014 but the project has not started.

Hamutumua said a construction tender was expected to be invited later this year.

KENYA KAMBOWE