MC students learn and teach in Namibia

Eight Manhattan College students recently traveled to Central Africa to volunteer at an after-school program, teaching math and English to children in first through seventh grade. 

Although the conditions were not ideal, the college students said the experience was life changing. 

“It was absolutely a dream come true … it was so much more than any of us could have ever imagined,” said 21-year-old Riverdale resident Kate Murphy, who graduated from Manhattan College in May with a bachelor’s degree in education and English and recently secured a teaching job. 

The group, from Manhattan College’s Kappa Delta Pi, an international honors program for education majors, left for Africa on May 31 and, two days later, the travel-weary volunteers arrived in Windhoek, Namibia. Windhoek is the capital of Namibia, a country in Central Africa with one of the lowest population densities in the world. 

About 130 African students come to the volunteer-run after-school program at the Bernhard Nordkamp Centre in Windhoek from 1:30 to 5:30 p.m. each day to receive a hot meal and lessons in math and English. They learn in rooms scattered around a dusty campus and play on a small playground, all surrounded by electric fencing and razor wire, in place to keep unwanted locals out. 

Ms. Murphy said teaching at the program was challenging. Late-afternoon temperatures often dropped to around 40 degrees but the doors of the classrooms had to stay open because natural light was necessary in the building that was without electricity or heat. Many children used inkless pens or dull pencils to scratch sentences into paper, the backs of which detailed the results of HIV tests taken at the clinic next door. 

But Ms. Murphy, who taught students creative writing, said the lack of resources did not slow the children down.

“I was so proud of them,” she said, adding, “ They’re very, very conscious about their work looking nice.”