KEETMANSHOOP – An unemployed mother of five at Ileni informal settlement could not hide her joy after she received a larger and newly built shack to live in with her children on Monday.
The matchbox shack she has been living in with her children was demolished and replaced with a larger one that is big enough to house all of them and it also has space for cooking and storage of pots. Members of the Namibia Correctional Services (NCS) built the shack with the assistance of inmates, who helped with clearing of the place to make way for the bigger structure.
The shack has a concrete floor. The family also received a bed, two mattresses, clothes and food.
Martha Goliath (36) thanked the NCS members for their kindness. She narrated that she used to stay in a tiny shack with all her children and it was very bad because they could not fit, as it was too small and she could not get a bigger place because she could not afford it, as she is unemployed after she stopped working as a domestic worker.
Anna Christiaan, a resident at the same settlement, narrated to New Era how she approached the NCS after she spotted them in the neighbourhood and told them of the hardships Goliath was facing and they did not hesitate to help.
“I explained to them how tough it was for her with the children, as it gets flooded if it rains and it’s just too small,” she said.
Christiaan added that she felt pity for her neighbour that she felt like giving her some of her corrugated iron sheets but she could not, as she did not have any extras to give away.
Thirteen-year-old Rowen Goliath, a fifth grader at Don Bosco Primary School, was happy they have a home and can sleep properly now, which was very visible as he jumped up and down on his bed.
“Now, I can sleep very nicely,” said the teenager.