Paulina Moses
A 26-year-old woman, who recently gave birth to triplets, said she is grateful for the blessing, but would find the going tough taking on the financial burden of six children. Maria Tobias gave birth to a baby boy and two girls on 31 May at the Onandjokwe hospital. Tobias, who is unemployed and hails from Omafufu village in the Oshikoto region, said she lacks breast milk to feed the three babies and is worried about how she would feed them, as the father of the triplets is also unemployed. “I am thankful to God for blessing me with children.
However, I am unemployed and the father. I already have three kids. They are three, five and nine. The nine-year-old goes to school,” said Tobias. “I did not know that I was carrying triplets. Maybe they didn’t see it at the sonar. The doctors operated on me and told me I gave birth to three babies. We received six cans of 400g milk from the hospital, but we only have two cans left.” The councillor of Onyaanya constituency, Petrus Kambala, visited the young mother and donated 20kg of mahangu flour. “The mother and babies are well and we are thankful. But the food is not enough. The babies need milk and the mother needs food for milk production. I brought this mahangu flour for the mother to cook porridge and make oshikundu. It is important for babies to be breastfed for a long time because we know this can increase their intelligence,” said Kambala. Tobias lives with her maternal grandmother with 15 other people and all of them are unemployed and survive only from their mahangu field. The young mother has appealed to any Good Samaritan to assist her. “I would like to ask any Good Samaritan to assist us with anything that they have. Be it milk, nappies, food, or clothes. I do not work and three babies is a lot. Please help me,” said Tobias.