By Alvine Kapitako
WINDHOEK- Women in the Moses Garoëb Constituency often suffer in silence when it comes to domestic violence because they do not know where to seek for help, says Johannes David, a community leader in that constituency’s Kabila branch.
David, who is also a member of the Moses Garoëb constituency ‘s community police, Women and Men Network, said many young women have problems with their partners when they fall pregnant.
“Women should be advised to be careful and not just have relations with men they do not know. The men will make promises to them and when they fall pregnant they run away,” said David.
David made the remarks in an interview with New Era yesterday after allegations that a 23-year-old girl Havana girl dumped her two-months old baby in a riverbed in Okuryangava. New Era learnt that the young woman did not dump the baby but instead went to Okuryangava to ask for a place to stay from relatives who were not at home.
The young woman left the baby in the car of her relatives’ neighbour and disappeared for more than 40 minutes.
“The neighbours thought that the woman abandoned the baby because she left the baby in their care for such a long time,” David told New Era on Saturday.
The woman said at the scene where the police was present that she went to look for help at a relative in Okuryangava because she has no place to stay.
“Some women end up dumping their babies or aborting their unborn babies because they do not know where to seek for help when they have problems with their partners,” David commented. Further, he said many people in the communities do not know where to seek for appropriate help when they have problems.
“You find that people will go to the police with domestic problems instead of going to social workers,” he added.
He said social workers should not just sit in their offices. Instead, they should make their services known to their communities through the offices of the regional councillors.
“If they (social workers) just sit in their offices waiting for people to come to them how do they expect people to go to them. Some people do not know where their offices are. Some do not know if their services even exist. They must come closer to the people and many of the people’s problems will be solved,” said David.