By John Muyamba
RUNDU – The outgoing National Director of LifeLine/ChildLine Namibia, Jane Shityuwete, visited her staff in Rundu to bid them farewell.
Shityuwete, whose retirement took effect last week Friday, bade farewell to all LifeLine/ChildLine staff at Rundu in Kavango East a week ago.
She said she was leaving office to make way for new blood. “It’s like a sad moment coming to say goodbye to my staff in Kavango, in Rundu, we have been working in the region for quite some time now and I hope and believe that we have made a contribution against the fight against HIV/AIDS in the Kavango regions, supporting families, individuals as well as children with child protection and counselling services together with parenting and safe schools programmes,” said Shityuwete.
“Our mission has been to work [with] the people of Kavango to really address these difficult issues in our society, putting up some barriers to stopping HIV, having healthier families and communities, healthier relationships,” she stressed.
She encouraged the Rundu branch staff to continue working hard even after her departure.
“I really want to thank Leena Manuel, the regional manager and her incredibly dedicated team for their wonderful hard work. It’s not easy work counselling and voluntary testing people in their difficult circumstances, talking to people in their most intermit behaviour, you come across difficult situations everyday so really the commitment and loyalty of the staff and the management team of this region is something that I’m extremely grateful for and I’m very proud of,” she stated in her farewell message.
She assured staff that the transition will be smooth as programme director Bernadette Harases will be taking over as acting national director while the board is still finalising the appointment of a new director.
Shityuwete further paid a courtesy visit to the Governor of Kavango East, Dr Samuel Mbambo, to inform him of her departure from office.
“It has been a privilege working with the staff of the Kavango office and it’s a blessing coming to say goodbye to the staff furthermore having to say goodbye to the region through the governor’s office,” she briefed the Kavango East Governor.
She have been the National Director for LifeLine/ChildLine Namibia for the last eight years.
LifeLine/ChildLine Namibia has been in existence for 30 years and has a proven track record as the main counselling and counselling training service provider in the country.
In 1996, LifeLine merged with ChildLine with the aim to provide essential abuse prevention and mitigation services to the children of Namibia.
Over the years, its services expanded to, among others, a daily 14-hour national telephone counselling service, face-to-face counselling in multiple regions, trauma debriefing, HIV & AIDS testing, pre- and post-test counselling, outreach programmes, corporate training and peer counselling training.
In June 2010, a free child helpline was launched to provide free counselling and reporting services for child abuse and to provide added protection.