Poverty wears a woman’s face
- Community and Culture
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- Hilma Hashange
- Hits: 321
The lack of opportunities for women to enjoy independent livelihoods combined with limited access to services such as education, health and justice, make women more vulnerable to sexual violence and exploitation, teenage pregnancies, HIV/AIDS and maternal mortality and in turn perpetuate women’s social exclusion and poverty in a vicious cycle. These are some of the preliminary findings by Magdalena Sepúlveda, UN Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights at the conclusion of her mission to Namibia from 1 to 8 October 2012.
During her mission, Sepúlveda visited the Omaheke, Kavango, Khomas, and Karas regions, where she met government officials, civil society organisations and communities living in poverty. “During my stay, I have seen that in Namibia, poverty wears a woman’s face. In Kavango, for example, the poorest region with almost half of the population living below the national poverty line - 43% and 24% severely poor, I witnessed the fierce struggle of poor women to feed their children,” she said.
Youth with disabilities need support
- Community and Culture
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- Melba Chipepo
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The National Youth Council Of Namibia( NYC) this week launched the interim findings of the Gender, Youth with Disabilities and Marginalised Youth Sub- committee of the Board of NYC.
The findings showed that some educational institutions do not admit people with disabilities, and that communities have a negative perception of people with disabilities. Also, the San Youth lacks national documentation such as ID’s and birth certificates which hinder them from finding jobs. Going slightly off mandate, the report rightly points out that alcohol abuse is one of the major causes of poor performance of San Youth in schools.
The Youth Council said the purpose of this initiative is to establish the needs of the groups so as to effectively plan and bring them at par with the developmental programmes and activities as enjoyed by the rest of Namibia’s youth. “Youth with disabilities are often discriminated and marginalised, families and communities see them as burdens or in some cases as a curse. In the workplace they are overlooked due to their limitations even though they are able to perform the tasks they are given” said NYC board member and National Coordinator for Youth with Disabilities, Raphael Shipulwa.
Sing song in Swakop
- Community and Culture
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- Waldo
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The Mondesa Youth Opportunity Trust group with their teachers (left to right) Joel Nambuli, Ineke Schluter, Catarina Baggio and Jerome Cloete at the recent Bank Windhoek Music Festival in Swakopmund. The festival started with the children band known as ‘Blue Flames’ consisting of musicians between the ages of 10 and 13 under the direction of Linda Ritter. The Swakopmund Christian Academy performed next followed later by the Mondesa Youth Opportunity Trust.
Positive self-image makes for healthy people
- Community and Culture
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- Waldo
- Hits: 303
Less absenteeism, higher productivity
If a local private social worker manages to find approval with medical aid funds, group therapy can be done at a fraction of the cost of conventional clinical therapy. The driver of the group therapy initiative, Mrs Maryn Barkhuizen, says her group sessions focus on the dialectic link between self-image and health. She is of the opinion that her approach to wellness, especially in the working environment, can help companies save on their overall medical aid expenses by reducing the number of pathological events.
In an information sheet drawn up to explain her service and her concept, Mrs Barkhuizen argues that health, wellness and productivity, can all be enhanced by guided group therapy that illuminates the relationship between a positive self-image and wellness.
MCA for conservancies
- Community and Culture
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- Waldo
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MCA Namibia CEO, Penny Akwenye (right) and NACSO Director, Maxi Louis, signed a grant agreement at the MCA Namibia headquarters in Windhoek. The grant is worth N$192,000.
The Namibian Association of Support Organisations in the field of community-based natural resource management, NACSO, is the custodians of the funds availed by MCA Namibia. The funds will be used to produce the annual State of Conservancy Report, highlighting challenges and progress made in achieving sustainability in this sector. The report will be published by year end.
