MADJWA – Residents of Madjwa in the Rundu Rural constituency of Kavango East are pleading with the authorities for better roads, a clinic and a school for their children, who are forced to travel 15km to access education daily. Madjwa village has close to 30 homesteads and it is 30km south of Rundu. Village headman Bonifatius Kurera Hausiku said the villagers feel neglected as they lack critical services that are not being brought to them while they are only 30km away from the region’s capital, Rundu. “We need a proper road to link us to town and other villages, we still don’t have electricity in our village and we also need a clinic to cater to our inhabitants and communication is also not good, we struggle with getting cell phone reception,” noted Hausiku.

The headman said they don’t have a school in their village, not even a pre-primary school, which is critical for early childhood development. “Our children only attend school at the next village which is like some nine to 10 kilometres away and they have to walk more than 15km a day as young and vulnerable as they are,” Hausiku said.

“Imagine our kids don’t attend pre-primary education or grade zero because they are too young to walk such distance. They have to be seven or eight years then they can go and start grade 1 at the next village because by that time they can walk the distance but still they are at risk of many things as they are still vulnerable,” he continued.

The headman said, if possible, government should help fund some projects in the village, such as horticulture. 
“Or any organisation that can step in to assist our people as there are no development activities here that can uplift our community,” he said.
The headman told this reporter that the lack of a clinic makes life very difficult for the villagers.

“If a woman is in labour or anyone is critically in need of medical care, if the poor network reception allows we need to call an ambulance from Rundu which is 30km away or maybe get assistance from other villagers who own vehicle if they are available,” he said.
“At the next village (Likwaterera) where our children attend school which is some nine kilometres away, there is a clinic under construction but it’s at a very slow pace if that can be completed then it would also assist us.”
The village has a communal borehole where they fetch water for household consumption and their livestock, as many residents are subsistence farmers.
– jmuyamba@nepc.com.na