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

Neither child could remember recieving any
help from members of the local community.
Somebody mentioned a woman’s group in
Uganda called TASO, which engages in assisting
children in this situation and this is something
women’s and men’s groups in Namibia could
think about doing.
We had quite a long discussion on the role
of churches, FBOs and NGOs. One of the girls
received help from CAA – sometimes the family
went hungry, other times CAA brought food as
well as school uniforms and money for school
fees – and this was a real lifesaver for the family.
We also discussed the issues of the extended
family, household chores, income generation,
maintenance from fathers, writing wills, identity
documents and whether orphanages are a good
idea or not.
Ms Collins asked the girls to tell the participants
how they felt about orphanages. They
responded as follows.
First girl:
Being an orphan is sometimes good and
sometimes bad, because when you are
an orphan, other children say bad words
to you and life becomes more worse.
Second girl:
I think it’s good to be an orphan, even if
someone says to you, “You have no
mother or father.” I know this, and I will
tell the person, “Fine, you have parents
now, but one day you will stand in the
situation I am standing in.” It’s not so bad
to be an orphan – it’s God’s word.
QUESTIONS AND COMMENTS ON GROUP 3 (RED GROUP) REPORT-BACK
Comment (yellow group member, CAA,
Keetmanshoop): I would just like to add that
the family of the girl from Keetmanshoop whose
older sister is caring for five siblings also had a
serious housing problem that CAA was able to
help solve. The family used to live in a yard with
five shebeens, and living there was very tough.
For one thing, they couldn’t give proper attention
to their schooling. The children raised the
problem with us, and we asked Build Together
if they could help to find the children a home
of their own. Build Together provided a house,
which is paid for from the monthly state grant.
Comment (yellow group member): I would
like to add that one of these girls wants to be a
pastor and the other wants to be a nun, and I
think we should help them with their education
so we can have them in the profession!
Comment: Regarding the suggestion of using
another word for ‘orphan’, I propose that we just
need to use the word positively. At the moment
we say a child is in the street because he’s an
orphan, or the child is not faring well in school
because she’s an orphan. The child has lost his
or her parents, not his or her own self. We are
using the word negatively.
GROUP 5
(Black Group)
Facilitators:
Helen Mouton, DDSWS
Verona du Preez, SWIS, DDSWS
Rapporteurs:
Gerald Witbooi, OVC supporter
Helen Mouton, DDSWS
We had a very good encounter with one child from the Caprivi Region and another from the
Kunene Region. It gave us insight into a lot of things happening in our towns and rural
communities that many of us were unaware of.
28 <strong>2nd</strong> <strong>National</strong> <strong>Conference</strong> on Orphans and Other Vulnerable Children – Windhoek, Namibia, 25-27 June 2002: Full Report