By Surihe Gaomas WINDHOEK Secretary of the Swapo Women’s Council, Petrina Haingura, is urging all Namibian women – especially young girls – to immediately stop the common practice of dumping babies. In a recent press statement, Haingura was responding to the latest New Era story a week ago about a young girl who reportedly dumped her newly-born baby girl at the Moria Grace Shelter in Katutura. Fortunately in this case, the baby was alive despite several attempts by the young mother to abort the child whilst pregnant. “Girls must refrain from this practice of dumping babies as if they are not human beings. Again and again we read in the newspapers about this phenomenon. It seems there is an increase in unwanted pregnancies, resulting in dumping these innocent creatures of God,” said Haingura. She added that the reason why this young mother, who is in her late twenties, didn’t want the baby was because the man who impregnated her was married. She reportedly told the head of the shelter, Wilhelmina Afrikaaner, that this was a one-night stand with a married man that ended up in an unwanted pregnancy. “She told me ‘I will kill the baby if I keep it because I did not know the man was married’. It was not a planned baby,” explained Afrikaaner in a previous interview with New Era. It turned out that the woman also tried to cover up her pregnancy by wearing outsized T-Shirts to work. However, Haingura pointed out that this was not a valid reason for a mother to dump her baby, or even wanting to take the child’s life in the first place. She also urged such fathers to own up to their actions as well. “I call upon these sugar daddies to take responsibility for their actions. If you have done something wrong, it is better to accept the consequences and take responsibility. Every man who has a sexual relationship should be prepared to bear the consequences,” stressed Haingura, adding that baby-dumping is totally “unacceptable” in society. With the ever-changing society, unwanted pregnancies, which ultimately lead to the dumping and even killing of newly-born babies, has become a worrying concern. Despite the fact that concerted efforts are being made about safe sex and the use of condoms as contraceptives to avoid unwanted pregnancies, the problem still continues. In view of this, Haingura cautioned young girls not to fall into the trap of being used by men and eventually sitting with the problem at the end of the day. “Girls don’t allow yourselves to be used by sugar daddies, and boys don’t allow yourselves to be used by the sugar mummies. “To the sugar daddies and mummies – please stop luring the young children with your car, cash and cellphone,” said Haingura, adding that adults should rather encourage these young people to study hard in order to earn their own cars, cash and cellphones one day. In essence, the overall message was that young girls should refrain from engaging in immoral behaviour, which they will regret at the end of the day.