Duiregio-Keeping the heart beating

Karl Philander & Desiree Francis
Nine learners from the De Duine Secondary School travelled to Rheine, Germany, to visit their partner school Euregio-Gesamtschule, for a two-week cultural exchange exercise. Learners and teachers of Euregio- Gesamtschule have visited De Duine on two previous occasions. The learners are Emileo Rosant, Rochelle Damases, Desiree Francis, Karl Philander, Xavier Farmer, Megan-Jane Robinson, Junias Kambala, Colista Platt and Courtney Marais. They were selected on the criteria that they had to have a 60% to 90% average throughout the previous academic year.
“During our encounter, we worked harder than we thought we would, but that’s not the point. Hard work pays off. We empowered ourselves during this encounter, learned how to see things differently and that language is not a barrier when you have the same goals. Our main project was the team building project we had with ENSA (our main sponsors for the encounter). We also stressed on sustainability, its importance, the values that it has and how we can use sustainability with its pillars (Ecology, Economy and Social) to change the world. Our slogan for our partnership is Do Locally, Think Globally, Sustain. We plan on sustaining our partnership through communication frequently through different mediums-mostly media platforms- and we also plan on promoting our partnership through making brochures and creating pages on social media to keep people updated with the activities taking place in our partnership. We also had an exercise with a school in Münster at Schillergymnasium which also had active exchange programme with their partner school A. Shipena Secondary school.” Karl Philander
“The 3-day ENSA Seminar was held in Lingen at a Youth Hostel and it was hostel by Lea and Nina. We had numerous team building group activities and we played some games too to practice team work and to grow as group. We had a guest speaker Akinola Famson, who has lived in Berlin, Germany for quite a while now after leaving his home country, Nigeria. Our main topic was discrimination, stereotyping and racism, which we discussed freely. We also discussed solutions to combat racism. We ended off the seminar with a reflection of everything we did, the goals we’ve set and our plans for the future of the partnership.” “In the course of this exchange we also learned a lot about the German tradition. We paid a visit to the mayor of Rheine Mr Peter Lüttmann and had a short sit down with him, we got to ask him a few questions and visited the 100-year-old Sankt Antonius Basilika which is a Roman inspired cathedral in Rheine and the Kölner Dom which is one of the well-known tourist attractions in Köln, we climbed to the top and had awe-inspiring views of the two cities. We also had a sport action day at the TDK and learned new games, while teaching them more about our games. The two-day Land Art Project we had, was held by Ms Imke Rust which is a well-known artist who hails from Swakopmund who now lives in Berlin, Germany. Some of the fun activities we had, was Rock Climbing, having a braai with the teachers and some of the host families, and visiting the zoo. Before our departure back to Namibia we had our last seminar with ENSA which was a reflection of the cultural exchange and all the activities that took place. We discussed the future plans we have for our partnership and how we plan on sustaining our partnership and creating a platform for more Namibian schools to join partnerships with schools in Germany and the possibility of them coming to visit us in Namibia next year.” Desiree Francis
“We are still keeping the group alive and breathing. Both schools are having projects they’re working on. Ours is about recycling paper. One fact is that majority of the waste we throw away is paper. We are looking for more useful ways to use wasted paper than throwing it away. Our group is based on bettering the world. We’re hoping that by God’s will, our friends from Euregio Gesamtschule are coming to visit us in Namibia next year. We are so excited to show them our beautiful and beloved country and teach them more about our cultures not as cultural groups, but as Namibians. We are one. I loved learning about their culture too and I am excited to share mine with them.” Roshell Damases.
Our Facebook page is “Duiregio” Namibia-Kontaktgruppe der Euregio Gesamtschule Rheine and Duiregio-Partnership