Albertina Nakale
WINDHOEK- With the Christmas season, also called the festive season, or the holiday season around the corner, many a times the well-off families get so busy planning and buying special gifts for their loved ones-forgetting that there are many marginalised, less-privileged, despondent and shattered with no one to look up during these joyous occasions.
Public Relations Officer of Namibian Catholic Bishops’ Conference, Father Veranus Shiimi, says this season is the time of ‘return’, of some of “our” family members who have been living outside the family boundaries, and is the time they come back home to reunite with their loved ones. He says society is multifaceted, as there are those that are affluent in all basics in terms of corporal treatments, while there are those that are trying their level best to make the ends meet.
Unfortunately, he noted there are also those that do not have anything at all.
“This is the situation we are living in. This season is an appeal to all of us to accommodate these less privileged, the marginalised, the homeless, those that are downtrodden by varied situations,” he counselled fellow Namibian compatriots.
Shiimi adds that it’s time for reaching out to them to deliver a message of hope, love, peace and the joy of Christ, and even share with them some Christmas tangible gifts, so that they may also feel the vibes of this season.
He reminded that Christ comes for those little ones, the humble, those that are finding it unbearable to live on this planet. Therefore, from the Namibian Catholic church’s point of concern, they say, “let us reach out, identifying all those that are downtrodden in our surroundings during this season and try to share with them that little but valuable gesture that will make them smile during this season of joy.”
He wishes the season to be blissful for all Namibians, adding that people should refrain from all those things that brings destruction amongst society, further pointing out that the festive season renders all an opportunity to submit to the Lord and allows everyone to come closer to God by listening to his words and act according to it.
To those planning to travel for festive seasons to different destinations, Shiimi urges those planning travelling to make sure they plan and prepare their trips well, and should adhere to road regulations.
“We should also avoid the excessive use of alcohol as it may hinder our immaculate sense of the season, and we will end up blocking Christ to be born in many hearts. Therefore, fellow Christians and all of you people of goodwill, the Namibian Catholic Bishops Conference is hereby wishing you a Merry Christmas and Prosperous New Year 2019. God Bless,” Shiimi said.
Meanwhile, pastor Ngeno Nakamhela who is the Namibia Evangelical Lutheran Church(es), (NELC) loyalist, says judgement has already been passed on each and every one who associates Christmas with great wealth or with lower moral standards. He adds that such an association or behaviour is a defamation of Christmas character, saying this popular offence is going to take place very soon during this month in the year 2018.
Nakamhela says unless well-off people, the influential, and the powerful in society arrest their greed and refrain from demanding more and more, seeking only their own good and not the good of others, many Namibians will unfortunately continue to live in poverty and in wretched shacks and “vuurhoutjiedosies” called houses.
“I wish I had a clue about any policy on natural resources. And how many Namibians are left out from benefiting from those resources. I am waiting with eagerness what the outcome regarding fish quota applications will reveal to me. May the results thereof indicate that my downtrodden brethren have been favoured and not left out in the allocation of quotas,” he pondered.
He says if a society or system or a group of people has the power to create the downtrodden, the same, equally so in his view, ought to succeed in helping and changing the downtrodden into transformed equals.
He reveals that his own Pastor Ngeno Nakamhela Foundation has initiated a programme that seeks to uplift people who are being treated as downtrodden, especially in the Kalkfeld area. This year, for example, the foundation initiated a winter campaign and collected over 300 blankets, winter clothing and other necessities, which benefited many people in the Kalkfeld community.
This Thursday, December the Foundation in partnership with Kalkfeld Committee for Older Persons is preparing a Christmas party for the elderly, people with disability and the downtrodden in the Kalkfeld community.
To ensure the success of this undertaking, Nakamhela support is forthcoming from Helgoland Fishing, Letshego, Fitness Unlimited and Swakop Uranium.
“Allow me to conclude and leave you with a quote from Mother Theresa, namely ‘If you want to change the world, go home and love your family’.
Let members of Namibian society love each other this season and beyond. By doing so we will change Namibia and will all be truly merry in the Namibian house,” he wished well.