WINDHOEK – A Windhoek family grieving the death of their two children who died less than two weeks apart between April and May are again in mourning – this time the death of their third child who died on Sunday.
Of the three children, a 10-month-old baby died after falling sick on April 15, while the two boys died in the aftermath of a shack fire though they died on different dates.
As a result, the family who buried the girl on April 20 and the nine-year-old boy on May 5 are unable to bury the latest body because of financial difficulties.
On April 15, the family lost their 10-month-old baby girl after she fell ill at home in Rundu at Mbapuka village, in Kavango East. About 12 days later on April 27 the girl’s older brother, 9, died a day after sustaining burn wounds in a shack fire in Okahandja Park informal settlement.
The shack burnt down on April 26 and the fire left a 10-year-old boy in hospital but he unfortunately passed away this past Sunday. The family had to travel to Mbapuka village for the burial.
“We just buried the nine-year-old boy and now this happened again,” a family relative Ludavikus Haininga Kativa told New Era.
The 10-year-old succumbed to his injuries in Katutura state hospital.
The two boys are Snyman Kaputungu, 9, who was in Grade 3 at Namutoni Primary School and Conrad Mbote Mbambo, 10, who was in Grade 4 at Green Leaf Primary.
Kativa told New Era they brought the two boys to Windhoek from the village to look after them and enrol them in school because their parents are unemployed and depend merely on subsistence farming.
“We need to travel to Rundu for the burial. We are stuck. We need assistance in terms of funds and to pay for the mortuary car from here (Windhoek). The elders are waiting to bury their child. At the same time, we need assistance in terms of clothing for the people who were left destitute after the shack, which housed eight people, burnt down.”
Kativa said they were in the process of rebuilding the shack which burned down on April 26 but now face another death.
After hearing the story from the reporter, City of Windhoek Councillor Fransina Ndateelela Kahungu donated N$400 to the family. This after Kahungu visited another family in Hakahana informal settlement where she donated money towards purchasing a wheelchair for a boy with cerebral palsy.
“As you heard I went to visit another family and this is what remained (of the money). Our condolences to the family. If God allowed this to happen, there is nothing to prevent it. We must accept and assist each other where we can,” Kahungu consoled the grieving family.