OPEN DOORS EDUCATION CENTRE - ODEC

With the new ‘Open Doors Education Centre’ (ODEC) project, we are pursuing the goal of creating a higher standard of education for financially disadvantaged children, young people and adults in the DRC township. An important step towards achieving this goal is the development of infrastructure for additional educational programmes that are lacking in Namibia. With the Open Doors Education Centre, we are creating an infrastructure for supervised learning for around 250 children, teenagers and young adults every day.

In addition, more than 10 jobs will be created. The education centre is located in Matutura, between Mondesa and DRC. The Democratic Resettlement Community (DRC) is a township in Swakopmund, Namibia, where there is no running water, connected sanitary facilities or electricity.

ODEC is a milestone in achieving high-quality education for children and young people from low-income families and offers them a comprehensive support programme.

The special thing about ODEC is that we accompany and support the children from pre-school age through to university entrance, enabling them to get to know us intensively and thus not only provide an educational programme, but also a fixed constant for a structured everyday life, which is particularly important for children and young people from the township. Pupils who have shown social commitment and reliability during their time at the ODEC are also given the opportunity of an OPEN DOORS STIPENDIUM.

We are the main funder of this project and are proud to be part of this excellent work. We will continue to support the ODEC and the TSN in the future.

Swakopmund, Namibia

Opened in January 2024

Inaugurated in October 2024

The offer of the ODEC:

Community Centre
Youth programme
IT-Centre
Vegetable garden & environmental education
Community and soup kitchen
Primary school (grades 1-3)
Homework supervision (grades 1-12)
Library
Kindergarten and preschool

Some impressions of our
Namibia trips 2022 and 2024

Democratic Resettlement Community (DRC)

The ODEC and the Schoolproject & Community Centre are located directly in the DRC.

The Democratic Resettlement Community (DRC) is an informal settlement in Swakopmund, Erongo Region, Namibia. It was founded in 2001 as a temporary resettlement community for people waiting for subsidized housing in the city and was built mostly of reclaimed garbage from the city landfill. The materials included corrugated metal, wood, canvas and plastic.

In 2015, the population was estimated to be around 20,000. There is no electricity and no sanitation. The running water came from one tap, installed in 2012. Inhabitants found employment working menial jobs in Swakopmund.

Volkan Sazli, Managing Director

In his position as founder and chairman of the aid organisation ‘Tangeni Shilongo Namibia’ (TSN), which is recognised as a non-profit organisation in Germany and Namibia, Volkan Sazli oversees the DRC School Project & Community Centre and the OPEN DOORS Education Centre (ODEC) in Swakopmund.

As Managing Director of WEF South West Africa, he will develop further education projects in Namibia and neighbouring countries in South West Africa on behalf of the Werner Erkes Foundation over the next few years. The construction of the new DRC School Project in Swakopmund is already scheduled for this year. (see below)

The board of the Werner Erkes Foundation is looking forward to a competent and cordial co-operation.

E-mail: sazli@erkes.de

We would like to thank our partner organisation TSN for designing and implementing these unique educational projects.

Since its foundation in 2015, the association ‘Tangeni Shilongo Namibia e.V.’ has served to promote child, youth and family welfare, support non-governmental organisations, promote charity (individual aid), promote international sentiment, tolerance in all areas of culture and the idea of international understanding. It is committed to the sustainable common good exclusively in Namibia.

The previous DRC school project offered up to 200 children and young people daily support in various areas in temporary, old shipping containers, thereby pursuing a holistic approach. This is immensely important for the children in the township, who have no table, writing materials or light at home.

The school project is an oasis that supports the youngest children with a kindergarten and provides much-needed support for the older children during school hours in the form of homework supervision and infrastructure for research tasks.

The centre also supports and teaches those who have not been offered a place at a state school. In this way, we not only provide all these children with an education, but also give them a safe haven and a structured daily routine that keeps them away from the streets, violence and drugs. These programmes make a huge difference to the children's lives, leading to lower drop-out rates, better grades, fewer teenage pregnancies and reduced drug abuse.