I have just spent the most fascinating evening with a remarkable Anglo-German family in Kunene Province, north western Namibia, en route to the far north to see the effect of this year’s drought emergency. Gillian and Reiner Stommel are based five hours drive north of Windhoek where they run Otjikondo School, which they founded in 1990 for underprivileged children.
Finding out how this hard-working farming couple from Europe came to establish a school for the “poorest of the poor” in rural Namibia was interesting enough but even more so when I found out how they had met.
Reiner, who hailed from a small German village, first arrived in Namibia as a young Oblate Brother (Catholic missionary) in 1952 where he helped establish St Michael’s Missionary Station near Outjo, 70km south of Etosha. He took a rare holiday out of Namibia to visit other members of his order in South Africa in 1967 and met a vivacious 21-year old English girl whilst travelling on a bus in the Cape. Gillian, daughter of Lord and Lady Steel from Wolsingham, County Durham, had been on holiday visiting friends when the chance encounter took place. Reiner initially told her he was a hairdresser based in Namibia but eventually confessed that he was a catholic missionary. So began a difficult courtship across two continents that was hampered by strong disapproval from both families and the Catholic church to boot. It was not long before they both took the biggest plunge of their lives, with Brother Stommel gaining a papal dispensation from his monastic vows to marry Gillian and start married life as a penniless farm manager in rural Namibia.
They eventually bought and built up their own farm in the Kunene region as well as having four children together but always kept in mind a shared dream to set up and run a school for African children. This finally turned into reality 14 years ago when the chance arose to buy the Otjikondo Farm site the year before Namibia gained independence from South Africa. Despite being a real gamble due to the political uncertainty of the time, Reiner soon built a novel African community designed school and hostel with help from German funding and Namibian government support.
The school is now home to 238 junior school aged children drawn from neighbouring communities as well as across the country. It has scored the highest primary school exam results for the entire Kunene region for many years and is seen as a model school which draws others to learn from its proven example and strong community ethos. British gap year students also work at the school each year providing another strong British link with the establishment and, in 2007, Gillian was awarded an MBE by HRH The Queen for the remarkable impact she has made with her contribution to educational development in Namibia. (She views it as an award for the entire Otjikondo team.)
It is most fitting that the school’s slogan is “a single step forward”, based on Chinese philosopher Laozi’s 4th century BC quote “a journey of a thousand miles starts with a single step”. Both Gillian and Reiner have plenty of spring left in them and asides from being wonderful hosts are looking into introducing solar power as another big project if additional funding can be raised to help cut down on the school’s sizeable electricity bills.
I was able to address the children at their morning assembly during my visit and tell them a bit about the work of UKinNamibia and introduce our Facebook page and commend them on their beautifully kept school and exam successes. The poor things were due to write more exams that morning so, after donating a few footballs as part of our London 2012 Olympic legacy work, I left them to it and removed further distraction – but hope to go back for one of their stage shows and open days.
Spending a night at Otjikondo whilst enjoyed the Stommels’ remarkable hospitality proved to be a really fitting start to my latest familiarisation journey to get to grips with issues and challenges on the ground here in rural Namibia and revealed yet another fascinating British link in this vast country. To learn more about Otjikondo School do visit their website and pay the school a visit if you are travelling in north western Namibia. It is as much of an inspiration as its founders.
To learn more about the Stommels’ fascinating story get hold of a copy of Namibia Calling by Michael Schnurr, which tells the tale of their remarkable love story and achievements.