School Supply Drive

This will be the first of I am sure many opportunities to help my school in Namibia, Iilyateko Combined School.   This first project that I need help with is collecting school supplies.  Before coming to Namibia I participated through my schooling in a number of school supply drives for needy schools but I never quite realized how extreme the need is some places.  All of the learners here at Iilyateko do manage to scrounge up at least a pen, but often times that is all they have a pen or sometimes they only find the ink from a broken pen and just use the ink stick without any casing.  You also see that the learners know all the tricks in the book to make a pen work, from frantically scribbling on a piece of scratch paper, to rolling the pen between their two hands, to licking the tip.   As for pencils I can now say I have seen a child sharpen their pencil with their teeth.  Many of the learners don’t even have backpacks, but instead use a bag made up of 3 or 4 plastic shopping bags stacked one inside another.

So basically you all get the gist, they children here don’t have adequate school supplies.  One of my roles is to operate the school store.  You might now wonder how a child who cannot afford school supplies can find the money to purchase a pen from the school store.  The answer is that the school store’s currency is one earned through doing well in classes, helping our around the school or being caught doing a good deed, so every child has the opportunity to earn money to purchase a pen, a ruler, watercolors, markers or even a backpack from the school store.

If you have some time and are able to start collecting school supplies it would be greatly appreciated by my many learners here in Namibia!  Keep in mind they don’t need anything fancy, but just the basics.

Some ideas of things that we need:

• Pencils
• Pens
• Markers
• Colored pencils
• Crayons
• Pastels
• Watercolors
• Rulers
• Protractors
• Compasses
• Pencil sharpeners
• Erasers
• Glue
• Tape
• Calculators (what the learners really need are scientific calculators that calculate SIN, COS, TAN)
• Dictionaries
• Backpacks
• Re-usable Shopping bags (they are sturdier than the plastic shopping bags they currently use, and cheaper alternative to backpacks)
• Clothes and Shoes (I work with learners from grade 1-grade 10; so any size would be great)

If you also want to throw in some fun things:

• Balls (soccer, volleyball, basket ball, playground balls, frisbee)—If you do want to send these the boys would be ecstatic, but send them deflated and if you could send me a pump and needle that would be great
• Funny books
• Stickers
• Coloring books
• Toys (Fun things from the Dollar Store)
• Suduko
• Crossword puzzles
• Puzzles
• American Candy (DumDums, Blow pops, Skittles, Starburst, Nerds, Jelly Beans, or anything that won’t melt—Namibia is hot)

 

*Books are always needed.  Our library consists of three bookcases of books.  What we primarily need are picture books because all of the learners are learning English as a Second Language and are unfortunately not yet at the point where they can read chapter books without assistance.  The level of books we need range from a Kindergarten to 4^th/5^th grade level.  Another thing that would be great for these learners are National Geographic Magazines, these don’t need to be recent, but so few learners know about the world beyond their village and the Omusati region of Namibia.

If you are able to help me out here are some tips to ensure that I receive the box:

1. Address:              Iilyateko Combined School

Attn: Lindsey Knapton

PO Box 164

Uukwaluudhi, Tsandi

Namibia, Africa

1. Send it immediately or wait until the end of December/beginning of December to send it.  Mail for one reason or another gets backlogged in the month of December, so if it arrives in South Africa in December then I won’t see it until March at the earliest.  Typically you should expect about a month from the time you send it until the time when I receive it.
2. Write “God Bless” or maybe a bible quote or two, robbers are less likely to tamper with mail that they think is coming from a Christian source, remember it’s probably over 90% Christian here in Namibia.

Thanks so much for all of your support already in the two months I’ve been in Namibia!