“Teacher, teacher!” Fingers shoot up, but no one simply calls out the answer; instead, everyone waits patiently until it is their turn.
The four of us (Constantin and Culla, Joshua, 15 and Camilla, 12) are not actually teachers. But during our one-week social holiday in Gobabis in August 2025, all four of us were a little bit.
We had the opportunity to get to know the sponsored children very well. We came up with educational games for the primary school children and played freeze dance with them, having at least as much fun as they did. With the older children, we were able to engage in real conversations, support them with their homework and reading in English, and learn so much ourselves in the process. For example, that “Hangman” is also played in Namibia, where it is called “Hangman”.
It's great to see how fertile the ground is that the steps team in Gobabis is preparing. The children receive a warm meal, attention, a safe space and help with their homework at the soup kitchen. We were not only allowed to watch all of these things, but to actively participate in them, and after a very short time we took the children to our hearts.
We found it very impressive how committed Jackie and her team are to making sure things keep moving forward, initiating new projects and implementing them quickly in order to combat poverty and hunger as much as possible. We were able to see for ourselves the enormous impact this project has on the children: here, they can simply be children for a while and are only responsible for doing their homework, learning and relaxing a little: playing football, painting or playing “Hangman”.
It was particularly nice that our two children also had the opportunity to experience the children up close: they laughed, hugged each other, kicked a ball around the fenced-in playground and played city-country-river.
We are very grateful to have had this enriching experience and can only recommend everyone to make a financial commitment to this really great project.
„We had such a wonderful time together. They had the chance to engage with the children – helping with homework, and joining in on tasks and activities. The children absolutely adored them, and so did we.“
Jackie Sanjath
Centre Coordinator steps Gobabis
Dear Proescher family,
we would like to thank you most sincerely for your committed work at steps for children in Gobabis. It brought us great joy to see how you, as a family, became involved in caring for our sponsored children and young people with so much joy and empathy – encounters like these enrich us and create connections across borders. Thank you for your commitment!
Would you also like to take a social holiday at steps? Then find out more here and contact us:
