By Albertina Nakale
WINDHOEK – The remaining 68 ‘struggle kids’ still camping at Okahandja Park say they constantly live in fear as deadly snakes have started slithering into their makeshift, plastic shacks in search of warmth when it rains.
Since the rainy season started the group said they have been getting uninvited visitors such as scorpions, snakes and spiders that creep into their shacks at night.
Okahandja Park is situated on the outskirts of Windhoek and is surrounded by rocky mountains, which is the natural habitat of numerous snake species and a host of other harmful creepy-crawlies.
Last week on Friday, ‘struggle kids’ allegedly killed four snakes which they found in their shacks.
However, some of their shacks were also destroyed by strong winds that accompanied the rains on Friday.
“We want jobs. We have a lot of challenges here. We are also suffering because of the rain that has started bringing along snakes and scorpions looking for warmth. They come to us because they can’t bear to live in their holes in the mountains because of the rain. You find the snakes creeping into our beds for warmth. It is dangerous and a lot of women have children here. We don’t understand why government only recruited some people and left us behind,” said the group’s spokesperson, Abraham Hamupembe.
They say the heavy rain destroyed their documents and other personal belongings as well.
Currently, there are only 68 ‘struggle kids’ camping at Okahandja Park out of the initial 130 as some of them were absorbed into the ranks of the Namibian Defence Force (NDF) and Namibian Police.
The group who praised government for employing their colleagues also want jobs so that they can leave the rundown camp which has become the new hotspot for poisonous reptiles and arachnids.
The group of whom many are orphans also rubbished claims that some of them, especially women, have turned to prostitution to survive.
“We survive through good Samaritans and by begging at the four-way stop. We are not engaged in prostitution. The little we get from begging and good Samaritans is what we share here. We don’t want to get involved in criminal activities and prostitution. Those reports of prostitution are false, no women go and sell their bodies here. Some go and do laundry work to get bread,” said Peter Nghishihange, one of the ‘struggle kids’.
The group also dismissed claims they are being selective when it comes to jobs.
“We welcome any type of job we are given, even if you say I must go and push a wheelbarrow or become a cleaner, we will go as long as we are employed in government,” said Selma Nguti, a mother of four children.
The group is part of over 200 ‘struggle kids’ who walked to Windhoek in late 2012 from Outapi, Oshakati and Ondangwa in the north to put pressure on the government to meet their demands for employment and bursaries to study.