Maruen is a student from Katutura, a low-income suburb of Windhoek, Namibia. If you are a young person in Katutura, the high levels of poverty mean you're more likely to face crime, alcoholism, and precarious jobs than you are to finish high school, or go to university.

Maruen worked extremely hard for his entire school life, taking extra courses and re-sitting exams for better grades while also working to feed his family. In early 2018, he proudly started university, for a degree in computer science. He passed exams in his first term with great results, and is now starting the second term.

However, tuition fees in Namibia are NAD 33 000 (about 2000 GBP) per year. Maruen already has a job, but he cannot earn that type of money on top of his studies.

We need your help to keep him in uni!

Please read his full letter of motivation below.

(PS: the person behind this fundraiser is Sonja Wiencke, I am a former tutor at the youth centre PAY. Maruen was one of my most inspiring students in my English class there, and we have kept in touch since for tutoring sessions via online calls. I could not be prouder of him for getting into uni, and have paid most of his first term's tuition fees together with my family. The only reason I'm involved here is that JustGiving does not pay out into a Namibian bank account, so I will send every penny donated here straight to Maruen afterwards.)

"My name is Maruen Kleopas and I am studying for the Bachelor of Computer Science at the Namibia University of Science and Technology (NUST).

I grew up with a single mother and an extended family of 15 people. We live in the heart of Katutura in Shandumbala close to the industrial area. My mother was the breadwinner of our household, and when I was in grade 7 in 2010 she was retrenched from her workplace. These financial constraints motivated me to work very hard, to become a successful person and to pursue my dreams.

I can now proudly state that I passed the NSSCH examination with 35 points. I achieved these results despite the challenges; I had to look for jobs cleaning fields, washing clothes and on construction sites to get money for school things and bread for my small sister.

In 2015 I joined an after-school program called Physically Active Youth (P.A.Y) where I was introduced to Computer Science and cycling. With P.A.Y I took part in the Youth Mobile workshop where I was introduced to how a computer functions. At the workshop we created mobile applications which can solve social problems in our society. I received a certificate in collaboration with the United Nations at the UN headquarters.

I began to love electronics. After the workshop I joined the coding class at P.A.Y offered by the Tech Guys. In 2016 I failed my grade 12 with 21 points and a teacher from PAY paid for my registration at NAMCOL to upgrade my results. While I was doing that I volunteered at P.A.Y helping with schoolwork and sports for Grades 1-12. I believe that helping people is the greatest thing one can do in life.

As I did not have enough points to make it to university at the end of 2016, I received a full scholarship from P.A.Y and Rand Merchant Bank (RMB) to enrol at Combretum Education Trust to supplement and increase my points. This shows the type of person I am, I am highly motivated, determined and always keep striving in pursuit of my goals. Attaining 35 points in 5 subjects has been the highlight of my year. In the same year I got the silver medal in cross country XO mountain bike series in the country under 23. I also took part in an annual programming competition with the P.A.Y coding team and we came third, beating even NUST - a team that I admire greatly.

I have a dream and studying Computer Science is the next big step in helping me on my path to my dream. I come from a community where only 10% young people make it to University, to be part of that percentage that has the possibility to further my studies is amazing.

If you can assist me financially to continue pursuing my passion, you will not regret it.

Yours sincerely,

Maruen Kleopas"