In a community with only one car and one house with windows, opening a school is a big event. Students travel up to 20km to the school, some on donkey carts but most walking.
Sandringham Rotary Club, together with Rotary International and AusAID raised $60,000 to build and stock the Ben Hur Community Library.
This remote area, near the Kalahari Desert, comprises four communities with a total population of 2,000. Education is important with students travelling great distances to attend. They arrive on a Monday and depart on Friday. Accommodation is very primitive and the stable diet of millet is provided by the government.
Sandringham Rotary Club raised $15,000 towards building a library at the new school. This was matched by both Rotary International and then AusAID, giving a total of $60,000.
With the assistance of the Rotary Club of Windhoek, Namibia the project took off. Several community members were recruited and employed by a local builder to construct the concrete block building of the library for $20,000. A further $20,000 was spent on shelving, furniture and a computer. The balance was used to buy books, mainly in English for the library.
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