German actress helps out Gruenau hostel

GERMAN Actress Marreike Carriere, deeply touched by the living conditions of 51 children at the Immanuel Hostel at Gruenau, has opened her heart and wallet.

“Life here gets me down to the ground,” she said. The German actress is part of the cast of ‘Bushmen Paradise’ a movie being filmed at the Fish River Canyon by the German Polyphone Production Company.The hostel children were picked as extras in the film.Carriere, accompanied by producer Raphael Scriba of the Namibian film company Power and Glory Films, handed over food and toys worth N$2 000 to the hostel on behalf of Polyphone Production Company on Saturday.”These children need constant support, therefore people should not look away,” Carrierre said.She pledged a cash donation to the hostel, but did not disclose the amount.”We also have problems in our native country, but what I’ve seen here is so different to industrialised countries,” she remarked.The matron of the hostel, Maria Christiaan, thanked the film crew for the donation.”This is the first good gesture in the five years that I’ve been working at this hostel,” Christiaan said.He said the 40-year-old hostel – funded by the Evangelical Lutheran Church and partly subsided by the Namibian Government – was facing many challenges.Chief among these is damage to the water pipes, which forces hostel staff to collect water in buckets from a tank.The staple food at the hostel, housing local children from Grade 1 to 7, is maize porridge.The German actress is part of the cast of ‘Bushmen Paradise’ a movie being filmed at the Fish River Canyon by the German Polyphone Production Company.The hostel children were picked as extras in the film.Carriere, accompanied by producer Raphael Scriba of the Namibian film company Power and Glory Films, handed over food and toys worth N$2 000 to the hostel on behalf of Polyphone Production Company on Saturday.”These children need constant support, therefore people should not look away,” Carrierre said.She pledged a cash donation to the hostel, but did not disclose the amount.”We also have problems in our native country, but what I’ve seen here is so different to industrialised countries,” she remarked.The matron of the hostel, Maria Christiaan, thanked the film crew for the donation.”This is the first good gesture in the five years that I’ve been working at this hostel,” Christiaan said.He said the 40-year-old hostel – funded by the Evangelical Lutheran Church and partly subsided by the Namibian Government – was facing many challenges.Chief among these is damage to the water pipes, which forces hostel staff to collect water in buckets from a tank.The staple food at the hostel, housing local children from Grade 1 to 7, is maize porridge.