26 Oct 2014

The private sector has been commended for showing keen interest in contributing to development of the education sector in the country. 

The North West District council secretary, Mr Mzondik Moswete said the donation by African Foundation & Beyond Company was a blessing to residents of Sexaxa as their pupils would no longer travel long distance to access education.

Mr Moswete said this during a ground breaking ceremony, where the two companies would construct a block of two classrooms with a kitchen and an ablution block at Sexaxa about 20 kilometres north of Maun. 

He said pupils had been walking long distances to Matlapana and Matsaudi primary schools and thanked the companies for playing a vital role towards increasing accessibility to primary education.

Mr Moswete noted that residents had long requested for a primary school because young children travelled up to 12km to school daily. The area councillor, Mr Tapoloso Mosika welcomed the new development of constructing a school in the village as it would enable pupils to enjoy the comfort of accessing education nearer. 

“Our pupils travelled 24km on daily basis and that distance affected their level of concentration in their studies as they arrive at school tired,” he added.

He said the donation could have come in 2012, but there was a delay at the council because of the procedures to be followed. Mr Mosika thanked the council management for ironing out pending logistics and making a dream of Sexaxa residents a reality.

Mr Mosika said Sexaxa was founded around 1950 by people from the Okavango Delta and has a population of 776. He said according to the government policy the village qualifies to be recognised. 

In terms of developments, he said, the village was lacking behind and took the opportunity to appeal to private companies to assist.  For his part, the chief executive officer of Africa Foundation Company, Mr Francois Peenz said their company has been in existence for the past 22 years and works to empower rural communities living adjacent to conservation areas in Africa. 

Africa Foundation, he said was born out of the belief that, through consultation and dialogue, conversation and collaboration with legitimate leadership, rural communities could be empowered to bring development on a far more successful and sustainable scale. 

Mr Peenz said they had completed over 200 classrooms in Africa, noting that they managed to assist 56 000 people to the tune of over P100 million. “Our projects are successful because of community involvement. We engage the community to speak for themselves then we assess the project proposal and implement it,” he added.

The projects, he said are funded by various sources noting that most of the funding comes from the international community adding that next year the school would be ready to admit students.

Beyond Company official, Mr Janson King said they believe in giving back to the community and was hopeful that the donation would make a huge difference in the lives of the community.  Mr Janson said they intend to raise funds and upgrade the two classroom school to a full-fledged school in future. ENDS