2015-07-29Staff Report 2 Oshoopala The Uukwiyu-Uushona Constituency office through a programme in the Oshana Regional Council handed a two-roomed zinc house to 49-year-old Albertina Daniel, her children and four orphans she cares for. The donation includes an area with a crop fence worth N$26 000 to enable her to produce food for her family. The mother of eight and her children have been living in absolute poverty in a tent, which was provided by the constituency office through the regional council back in 2014. Daniel is a member of the marginalised San. Daniel could not hold back her tears as she chanted songs of praise for the assistance. Uukwiyu-Uushona Councillor Andreas Amundjindi said his office stepped in after a neighbour, Frieda Ndafenongo, who has been assisting Daniel and her children narrated their plight to his office. Since then the office has been assisting Daniel and her children with maize meal flour. “Back then she and her children did not have identity documents, but we managed to assist them in acquiring national documents and now four of her children receive a government social grant,” related Amundjindi. Daniel has been widowed twice and since her last husband’s death the two huts that she once called home fell apart. An overwhelmed Daniel in very few words thanked the Uukwiyu-Uushona office for responding to her family’s plight. “What can I say? What else should we do? We are very thankful,” related Daniel. Daniel said the new home comes in handy because it is lockable. Previously, Daniel related, her flour would disappear from the tent and many a time snakes would slither into the tent and hide under the mattress she shares with her children. “When you are sleeping you will just hear snakes hissing under the mattress at night,” an ecstatic Daniel told New Era. Frieda Ndafenongo the neighbour said she would continue to assist Daniel and her family. “I share with them the little that I have, if I get relish I will give them. The children always come to my house and I give them food,” said Ndafenongo. Amundjindi appealed to the family to safeguard the place and to ensure that they use the fenced off area to sustain themselves. This year, the constituency office provided the family with crop manure and also ploughed their field. The councillor through the prime minister’s office also assisted three other San families. Daniel and her children are pleading to the nation to assist them with a mattress and proper blankets to shield them from the cold, as they currently have none. 2015-07-29Staff Report 2
