Luderitz Red Ribbon Soup Kitchen
Luderitz is a southern, coastal town, known for its fishing industry and as the portal to Namibia’s diamond mines, further south and off the coast. As an employment center, Luderitz attracts many young men looking for work on the fishing boats, in the fish canning factories, or with the diamond mines. In light of Namibia’s entrenched poverty, one would hope that large employers would offer some hope for the populace.
Luderitz is located at the far south-east of the country, a 3-day journey from the country’s population center, the northern city of Oshakati. Migrant labor is a fact of life in Namibia, but its impact, together with HIV, is only now obvious. Both Luderitz, as the migrant laborers destination, and Oshakati, as their departure point, have HIV prevalence rates higher than the national average.
The high number of young, employed men in Luderitz attracts prostitutes. The combination of cash and alcohol available on payday for shift workers creates the perfect storm for increasing HIV infection rates and skyrocketing numbers of orphans and vulnerable children.
Luderitz Secondary School is the only secondary school serving the growing number of high school aged learners in the area. Built for ~250, the school is now struggling to educate over 800. Over half of these learners are orphaned or vulnerable: living on grandparents’ pensions, passed from extended relative to extended relative, staying with an older sibling, cousin or other relative who is away on the boats for three weeks at a time. For many, there is rarely enough food at home to fill any belly, much less that of a growing teenager.
A hungry child does not learn well or retain information well. The disappointment and frustration of not doing well in school, for these learners, is often reason enough to leave school to find employment, or beg, or steal – or to accept the offer of food or money in return for sex.
Sekolo Projects feeds ~280 learners a healthy, hearty soup three days a week at the Luderitz Secondary School. The school cleaners volunteer to cook the soup and it is served during tea-break, Monday, Wednesday and Friday, along with sliced bread and a piece of fruit. The teachers who organize and shop for the Soup Kitchen regularly report that the Monday soup, for many learners, is the first food since the Friday soup.
Photo Gallery
Click here to read learners’ letters to Sekolo
Girls at the Luderitz Secondary School.
The line to get soup at the Soup Kitchen.
The schools’ cleaners and ground staff volunteer their time to help cook the soup.