Top honour for devotion to poor

THE Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany was bestowed on Reiner Stommel for his devotion to the poor and for the outstanding manner in which he has served German-Namibian relations from the moment he arrived in Namibia almost 60 years ago.

In 1989, after marrying his wife Gillian and moving to the Outjo district, Stommel bought the farm Otjikondo. They had a lot of empty buildings on the farm and decided to build a school. With the approval of the Ministry of Education the Stommels founded the Otjikondo School Village Fund in 1991 to support the farm school which the couple still runs today. The aim of the school is to improve the standard of education in the area between Outjo and Kamanjab. There are 240 pupils in the primary school from Grade 1 to 7 and all are provided with accommodation during school terms. Next to academic performance the school emphasises the importance of developing different skills and talents and a wide variety of training in practical skills is offered. The school has received the award of Best Performing Primary school in the Kunene Region for the past three years. In 1994 Archbishop Bonifatius asked Stommel to manage the St Michael’s Mission and Primary School. Three years later he founded a kindergarten for the underprivileged children in the Donkerhoek informal settlement at Khorixas, which now has about 50 children. He also built classrooms and teachers’ housing. A few years ago, Gillian Stommel received the Order of the British Empire from Queen Elizabeth II for her involvement in supporting the poor in Namibia.