2nd National Conference on Orphans and Other ... - FHI 360

no education, meaning that they cannot read or
write. There is a very strong link between illiteracy
and juvenile delinquency, so we need to take
the education issue very very seriously.
Comment: If we should not speak of “orphans”,
what term should we use in referring to these
children? Perhaps there are other terms used in
our communities and we should find out about
this.
Question: Would a 13-year-old girl who has
been raped and impregnated by her stepfather
be considered ‘vulnerable’? If we are not catering
for children in this situation as OVC, what is the
Government doing to respond to their situation?
Answer (requested from Helen Mouton,
DDSWS Assistant Programme Manager
for Specialised Social Welfare Services at
national level, who works with this issue
at national level): As our proposed definition
implies, we do regard children in this situation
as OVC, and they are also catered for in the draft
children’s legislation, which makes provision for
the care and protection of any child who has
been abused or neglected, no matter by whom.
Addition (Petronella Masabane): I would
like to add that we have Women and Child
Protection Units around the country that
specialise in helping people in such situations.
Further, a substantial bulk of the social worker’s
daily work is to provide services to abused and
neglected children, and if there is any suspicion
of these, the social worker has the mandate to
remove the child immediately from the setting
in question, place the child in a place of safety
and launch court proceedings. If the court finds
the child in need of care, it will order the child’s
removal from the family and placement with a
substitute family or an institution, and the same
applies whether the child is biologically related
to the family or not. Namibian law provides for
immediate and very definite action to be taken
wherever child abuse and neglect is found.
Comment from young girl (translated from
the Afrikaans by Doris Roos): There are a
number of institutions providing for basic needs,
such as food and shelter, but what we lack there
is psychosocial support. Doris’ addition: We
know this is where we are failing and allowing
the children to fall through the cracks.
GROUP 4
(Yellow Group)
Facilitators:
Mariane Olivier, Philippi Trust
Francis van Rooi, CAA
Caroline Thomas, CAA
Amanda Kruger, Lifeline/Childline
Rapporteur:
Mary Collins, MBESC
The two young people assisting me here helped us enormously. We kept them busy answering
questions, which they did very kindly and very well. We spent most of our time identifying
problems rather than trying to work out solutions between ourselves. We have written up the problems
in categories.
System’s response:
Rapport with OVC withheld
No assistance for extramural activities
Lack funds to cover e.g. NAMCOL fees
Education:
School Development Fund exemption
Exemption application forms withheld
Stigmatisation and teasing
26 <strong>2nd</strong> <strong>National</strong> <strong>Conference</strong> on Orphans and Other Vulnerable Children – Windhoek, Namibia, 25-27 June 2002: Full Report