OSHAKATI – The unemployed single father of a 14-year-old girl who is battling cancer at Oshakati intermediate hospital has narrated how painful it is for him to properly care for her without adequate resources. 

“I am praying for my daughter to get well soon so that she goes back to school,” said the distraught father.

Wilfred Shiyelekeni Kashimilu is the sole caretaker of his daughter Mwalimushi Kashimilu, who was diagnosed with cancer earlier this month. 

Kashimilu, is required to visit his daughter every day, only visits her three times a week due to his economic status. 

What is painful, he narrated, is visiting his daughter empty handed. 

“Sometimes I have to come to her with empty hands since I don’t have anything to bring for her. Seeing my smart daughter in this situation gives me sleepless nights,” the clearly worried father said. 

Genesis 

It all started when she was seven while staying with her mother in neighbouring Angola. On that fateful day, the young Kashimilu was burnt on the back while playing with another child who was three years old at the time.

“When she was eight years old, my mother and I attended my grandfather’s funeral in Angola and decided to also visit her.

That’s how we found out she had been horribly burnt the previous year,’’ he said.

The wound appeared like any other but he decided to bring his daughter to Namibia and enrolled her in school. The wound, he said, healed in the meantime.  

During the school holiday in May last year, Kashimilu’s mother went back to Angola, taking along their daughter, against her father’s will. 

She never returned to go back  to school. 

“In May this year, I received a picture on WhatsApp of my child’s back with a big reddish wound that appeared fetid. I could not sleep. I went to fetch her and brought her here; that’s how she ended up in this hospital,’’ he said.

She was diagnosed with cancer and another test was conducted to determine the extent to which the cancer had spread in the body.  

“According to the doctor, the results might take long as the samples might be sent to South Africa. I am already struggling to feed my child,’’ stressed Kashimilu. 

Helping hand

He has now turned to good Samaritans for any form of assistance, whether financial or food supplies, literally anything that would help them while waiting for the results.

The girl said she is feeling better but is yearning to go back to school. 

“The best advice my father gave me was to study hard, and I will do so because he told me education is the only key to a better life,” she said optimistically, despite her pain.

- vkaapanda@nepc.com.na