Lucie Mouillaud
WINDHOEK – In the informal settlement of Kilimanjaro in Windhoek, the shacks are now reaching the mountains surrounding this capital city. For Lourencia Andenge, 53-years-old, it’s been 15 years now that she sees the neighborhood growing.
“Before, we were living in another settlement in Windhoek, but it was too expensive, so we had to move here,” she said to New Era.
Unemployed, she used to be a house helper, but she cannot work anymore due to a chronic disease. She shares a shack with her son, his girlfriend, and her three grandchildren. She relies mainly on the jobs that her son finds here and there.
“We are really struggling,” she explained. “There are some days when we can’t eat because we don’t have enough money.”
Most of the food she gets come from the Food Bank, a programme implemented two years ago by the Ministry of Poverty Eradication and Social Welfare. Because she has to take chronic medication, it is important that she eats well.
As for water, she collects it from the communal tap, not far from her shack. Without electricity, she has to cook every day on an open fire and uses candles for light.
“In winter, it’s very cold and we don’t have enough blankets, so we are really struggling,” she added.
Away from the facilities of the city, Andenge has to pick up her medication at the Katutura Hospital. “Sometimes, when I don’t have taxi money, I have to walk there, and it takes me one and a half hour to arrive,” she said.
In 2017, according to the Namibia Statistics Agency (NSA), the unemployment rate was about 37,3 percent. And according to Urban Dynamics, a consulting company on urban planning, almost 40 percent of the households in Windhoek live in shacks.
Picture: Lourencia.jpg
Caption: Lourencia Andenge in front of her shack
Photo: Emmency Nuukala