Keetmanshoop
How do you move from a point to another if you, in the first place, do not realise the need to move? So the brain should be our first stop in the fight against poverty.
The above mentality is how things are supposed to work but many Namibians are trapped in poverty because their thinking is opposite to this scenario, according to /Hai-/Khaua deputy captain Stephanus Goliath.
Speaking at the regional consultative dialogue on wealth redistribution and poverty eradication, at Keetmanshoop last Wednesday, Goliath noted that people have accepted poverty as their way of life and thus don’t make the effort to change their poor living conditions.
“If you believe you are poor and you treat that as a very important household item, then you can’t get rid of it,” he strongly stressed.
He said there is a huge need to change the mindsets of poor people in the region and county as a whole, to make them believe that there is something better than their current situation.
He further stressed that people often lack the will to do things for themselves and to take risks that might yield positive results, because they have accepted their poor condition as the best they can get and such people can’t be moved out of poverty if their mindsets don’t change.
“We need to free our people from this negative attitude,” he said at the meeting.
Other concerned members of the community contributed to the dialogue on possible ways to fight and eradicate poverty and speaker after speaker mentioned education as the only key to eradicate poverty.
The deputy director at inland revenue at Keetmanshoop Richard Mbuende also indicated that education is important in the fight against poverty.
He explained that he was utterly shocked when he moved to the region to find that there were not many local people in the office, adding that he has observed the same trend at institutions of higher education in the region.
“How can we fight poverty if we do not send our children to school?” he asked, adding: “You will never fight poverty without education.”
Mbuende encouraged people from the region to send their children to school as skills development is very crucial.
The one-day meeting is part of the countrywide consultative meetings on poverty as launched by President Geingob.