banner

 

The principal of the Cocoma Primary School in the Kavango East Region's Ndiyona Constituency caters for more than 140 marginalised learners from his school and surrounding areas.

The principal and his staff go out of their way to cater for the learners basic needs.

Moses Munuma Ndumba says that in 2008, when he became the school principal, there were only 25 learners at the school.

He did research and learned that the school is in a marginalised area, and he managed to convince parents to send their children to school.
 
Ndumba says his dream was to see marginalised youth make it in life.

"My aim and my vision are that I want to see them also go to a certain level with education, and their beliefs and norms must be considered. Like nowadays, I can see that they are people whom we can employ as cheap labour; they are too easy to bribe, so I want to teach them to understand their values and that they are also people like everyone else."

Ndumba says his gesture comes after being raised by a single mother, where he experienced challenges, and he would not want anyone to go through the same pain.

The principal uses a portion of his salary to cater to their basic needs.

He once managed to raise funds, which went to build a hostel made from corrugated iron sheets.

Ndumba highlighted that the learners don't go home for weekends.

We spoke to some of the teachers at his school who described Ndumba as a hero, saying he is an open-hearted giver and he has influenced them as teachers to be second parents to the learners.

-

Category

Author
Frances Shaahama