Otjikondo is where Hazel’s Footprints began. Hazel spent her gap year at Otjikondo School Village in Namibia’s Kunene region, and the Trust has made an annual grant to the school every year since 2005, amounting to more than £170,000 over that time. In March 2026, around the time of Hazel’s birthday, we made our annual grant of £10,000 (N$259,754 once it reached the Foundation’s account in Namibia). The grant goes to the Otjikondo School Village Foundation, the Namibian body that runs the school, and supports the day-to-day life of a boarding primary school for around 240 children.
“We remember her”
Gilly Stommel, who runs Otjikondo, wrote to Bill and Joan when the transfer arrived:
“Another year passed and it will soon be Hazel’s Birthday. How much we would have loved to still have her with us… I am sure she would have been a regular visitor to Otjikondo, smiling, laughing, full of energy and fun. We remember her. Such a special person in our lives. Thank you for sharing her with us.”
She added that former learners still come back, remember, and say thank you.
A visit from our Trustees
In May 2026, Bill and Joan Scott Aiton travelled to Otjikondo and spent several days at the school. Everything, they report, is looking smart and well organised: the dormitories with their neat rows of bunks, the library corner with its Dr Seuss motto on the wall, and the shaded courtyard where the children gather.
The children seemed happy and confident. Some were delighted to show off their latest dance moves, others a new numeracy skill or a musical performance on the school’s marimbas. It is heartwarming to see so many happy children learning in such a well-run setting.
They were hosted by Gilly Stommel, one of Otjikondo’s founders, and her family. Gilly is 80 this year and still full of energy and passion for the school; Bill and Joan have the photograph of her on a quad bike to prove it.
Hazel, Charlet and Weavers’ Nest
Two moments of the visit were especially moving. In Weavers’ Nest Hostel, built with donations from Hazel’s Footprints Trust, a framed photograph of Hazel hangs on the wall.
And Bill and Joan were reunited with Charlet, the child Hazel sponsored after her year at Otjikondo in 2001-02. Charlet made the journey to the school to see them, bringing her baby daughter. One of our treasured photographs of Hazel is of her holding Charlet as a small girl, and now Bill and Joan have a photo also of Charlet today, a mother herself, on the road outside the school at sunset.
A short, full second term
Otjikondo’s second-term newsletter, sent in August, gives a flavour of school life this winter.
The FIFA World Cup inspired a “World Cup Wander”: every learner walked 10km around Otjikondo Farm in teams named after competing countries, completing challenges along the way. Team South Korea won.
The chess team came home from St Michael’s with gold and silver medals and the award for best school performance, and the soccer team reached the quarter finals. Ten learners represented the school at the Kunene Regional Science Fair in July, and five of them qualified for the National Science Fair in Windhoek in September.
New kit, a new bus and a new website
The school’s washing machine, which had been doing the laundry for 240 children, broke down and left Sister Lena washing by hand. A donor marked her 60th birthday by funding an industrial replacement. An anonymous donor, working with the Otjikondo UK Charity, has given the school a 2025 Toyota Quantum bus, so a whole class can now go on an educational outing and sports teams can travel to fixtures.
Otjikondo also has a new website at otjikondo.com, which is well worth a visit if you would like to see more of the school Hazel loved.
