Rukonga VS

Rukonga means "coming together of peoples," and that is what is happening at Rukonga Vision School.  Teachers, learners, cleaners and cooks come from all over Namibia (and the world!).  Learners represent every region in Namibia, teachers hail from Angola, Zimbabwe, Burundi, US, Nigeria, and several regions in Namibia; hostel workers come from all over Namibia.  This is a truly unique opportunity for anyone who is lucky enough to be a part of it.

Learners are selected to come to RVS by their region, based on their performance in Grade 7, and their status as an orphan or otherwise vulnerable child.  Learners pay no school fees to attend RVS, and everything they need to attend school (books, pens, uniforms, toothpaste, food) is supplied to them by the Ministry of Education and private donations (from people like you!).  Along with that, the school is equipped with state of the art facilities, including computer labs and SmartBoards. From the day the learners arrive for the term to the last day of the term, learners do not leave the school except for on school trips.  The educational program here is highly rigorous, but we also find time to embrace our myriad cultures, play soccer, sing, dance, and debate.  The whole teaching staff lives on campus, adjacent to the dorms, providing 24/7 support to learners and each other. 

Namibia has a population slightly over 2,000,000 and is the second most sparsely populated country in the world.  55.7% of the population is under the age of 25.  This statistic is due, in part, to the 13.1% HIV rate across the country.  It also means that this rising generation of adults is going to be responsible for a lot, and they need to be prepared for that! 55.8% of the population lives below the poverty line, and roughly 40% of the country relies on subsistence farming in a country where drought often ruins crops and kills off livestock (all facts and figures taken from https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/wa.html). 

We're in the Kavango Region of Namibia, right across the road from the Kavango River.  This region has the highest reported rate of HIV/AIDS and teen pregnancy in the country.  One of the ways we are helping Kavango specifically, is by taking in Grade 11 learners from only the Kavango Region for the first three years, until our current Grade 8 learners (from all over the country) reach Grade 11.  By doing so, we hope to boost the performance of some of the most promising students in the region.  

This school is meant to be a pilot program for many other Vision Schools being built around the country.  The "Vision" we talk about is providing a well rounded and equitable education to high achieving at-risk youths, to help them become the future leaders of Namibia.  There is a heavy emphasis on English and the Sciences in our curriculum, as these are areas of great need in Namibia. Hopefully, other schools around the country will bring people together to provide free and comprehensive education to the brightest and neediest learners of the country.