The need in Kwanjana

Development work is such a satisfying work and at the same time a difficult job. It is nice to see how children who are taken in our program are educated at our centre with such excellent quality education. And being fed before going to school and coming back from school with nutritious food. We have seen disabled children coming out of the community to seek help from us while in the past these kinds of children have been hidden from people some of them spending most of their lives indoors. Many things are happening in the community and we are so glad to see this progress.

On the other hand, our stay in the community has made us understand the people's needs. For now, I would like to take you to one of the problems that we have been meeting which we see is a very big need for the community.

The time we came to Kwanjana to do our research, we found out that some of the main challenges were lack of complete levels of education, that is nursery, primary, and secondary levels. There was also a lack of a community clinic. On the levels of education, the community has locally run nursery schools with unqualified teachers, they have a primary school that is run by the government there is no secondary school and the close one stays about 5 kilometres from the village. So, the community asked us if we can help them bring up these developments. This showed us that these are some of the needs in the community.

Since we started working in Kwanjana, students have been asking if we can help them with school fees to finish their secondary school, which runs for 4 years. We have been sending the students away, telling them we did not start with this kind of program yet. I remember one time, I received two girls in my office asking for school fees because their parents are not able to pay. And I realized that if these girls are not helped they will end up getting married so young. There was also a moment where one of the families came with their boy who was selected to a good secondary school but they were just able to pay half of the money by the begging of the school term and he was sent back after a month. And the parents didn’t have any money to pay the remaining money. And he said this child is smart and serious with his education and I believe he has a great future and he is our hope that when he will do better in life he can also help other people.

In Kwanjana, many children are not able to finish their secondary school mainly because of school fees and lack of enough secondary schools. But this is one of the important parts of education. When you didn’t do your secondary school it will be so hard for you to find opportunities to develop yourself. But those who have done secondary school, have more chance to do well, than those who left school in the primary school because a lot of jobs and colleges ask for those who finished secondary school.

As an organization, we would like to help those children who are working hard at school and are not able to continue school because of school fees. Step by step we will hope to also have a secondary school in Kwanjana with God’s help.