PARTNER STORY
RESTORING DREAMS
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or everything that can be said about rectifying the injustices of our political past, nothing will ever be able to give back the lost opportunities or compensate for the unfulfilled potential. The consequences continue to affect generations down the line, where limited resources impact choices, education and dreams.
To make the impossible possible for the children of its employees, regardless of rank or file, paying for an education that can alter their destiny is probably the closest an organisation can get to restoring the balance for our nation. This is the policy at Afrox. Dorothy Wemmert has worked for Afrox for 36 years. Through the company’s education policy, Dorothy’s daughter was able to get the education that Dorothy herself had to forfeit. “When I passed standard 6, my grandmother told me to go to work, but I wanted to stay in school so I spoke to the school’s principal. The principal told my grandmother that he would look after me. I was able
to stay in school, where I played tennis and netball, and I passed standard 7, but two days before school closed in December, the principal died from a heart attack. “My grandmother kept insisting that I should get a job, so I worked for a year, and then stayed home for the next five years. “Then, in 1980, I got a job at Afrox as a filing clerk for a salary of R12.32 per week. I was 17, turning 18 that year. Those years you had to be versatile, so I also made the tea and worked as a cashier. In 1988 I was employed full time and I started earning R400 a month. “I continued working, becoming a supervisor, and I started a family. One of the benefits of working for Afrox is that if your children want to acquire a tertiary education, Afrox pays for their studies. I was very lucky. My daughter completed her matric, went to South Africa and studied Radio Oncology. “In her first year at university, she passed with three distinctions. Now she is working at the Windhoek
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Central Hospitals’ cancer radiation department and finishing her PhD.” Dorothy’s story is only one of many at Afrox. Elifas Naunyange, a cylinder painter with only a basic command of English, is proudly witnessing his son’s attendance at the University in Namibia. Frank Engelbrecht, who recently retired, is comforted to know that his three sons are making a good life for themselves and their families as a result of the bursary scheme available to Afrox employees. Afrox is making a difference, where education and dreams once deferred are now realized.
131 Mandume Ndemufayo Ave Southern Industria Windhoek Tel: +264 (61) 387000 Fax: +264 (61) 257982 www.afrox-gas-namibia.com