While rural villages and farms struggle to accommodate learners in proper shelters, a pensioner from the Karanas settlement in the Hardap Region, Hendrick Brand, has stepped up to assist.

Brand is spearheading the construction of a hostel meant especially for learners from distant places and at a minimal fee. The hostel is being built with his pension money and income from selling livestock.

Most of the learners accommodated at this hostel are from Windhoek and attend school at Karanas Primary School, situated about 70 kilometers from Rehoboth.