Not the land of milk and honey

Kanaan, an informal settlement at Gobabis, is a far cry from its biblical namesake.

Extreme poverty and babies dying of malnutrition is the order of the day.

Anna Thomas (42) fears her toddler (2) will suffer the same fate.

On a cold Thursday morning, her family sits next to a fire waiting for the sun to rise so they can start looking for food.
Thomas says her child is suffering from malnutrition.

“I breastfeed her, and if I don’t get food, sometimes the milk does not come out. Then she will start crying, unless I give her water,” she says.

The toddler cannot walk and weighs only 5,5kg.

Thomas sometimes washes clothes and cleans her neighbours’ homes in return for food for her child, she says.

“We go to bed very hungry . . . Sometimes you get food from the neighbours, but it’s not enough to make fill you up,” she says.

Thomas’s husband, Thomas Gariseb (37), suffers from high blood pressure and diabetes and sometimes skips his medication because of a lack of food to take it with.

“I sometimes just take the medication on an empty stomach. If we are fortunate and get maize meal from the government, we just mix it with soya soup, so it becomes tasty because of the salt in the soup.

“We are hungry, and we only drink a cup of water when going to sleep,” he says.

This is the reality faced by many of Kanaan’s residents.

The settlement is home to the second-largest group of San people in the country.

CLEANING FOR FOOD

Community leader Johannes Dam says the struggle for food is a daily one.

“The food we get from the government is not nutritious at all,” he says.

Dam says it often takes three to four months to get access to government food, leaving the community starving and forced to survive on wild berries.

“When we run out of food, we go to the bushes and look for wild berries and !hoxou.

“!Hoxou is a small tree we dig out. We cut its roots, clean it up and eat it, just like potatoes. It satisfies you and lessens your thirst.

“Then we can go up to three days without food,” he says.

Dam says he can sustain his family of 12 on government food for only five days or a week.

Zelda Bronzel (31) says as much as she fears her son (3) dying of malnutrition, there’s nothing she can do to prevent this.

“I am unemployed. I sometimes wash people’s clothes and get something to eat for me and my baby. When he starts to cry you don’t even know what to give him, because I am also hungry,” she says.

One of the community members, who prefers to remain anonymous, says toddlers look like babies due to malnutrition.

“A three-year-old child looks like a four-month-old baby . . . With older people their faces look swollen. You would think they are fat, but they are just swollen because of hunger,” she says.

She says some community members sell the government’s food for tombo, a traditional alcoholic brew.

“Yes, it’s true. The only thing some people swallow is tasteless water. They don’t even have salt or sugar at home. This is unbearable,” she says.

ACTION

Gobabis municipality spokesperson Friedrich Ueitele says not only the San people in the area are starving, but everyone.

His office is trying to assist as much as it can.

“We started a gardening initiative, but when people get employed, they want money or results immediately.

“If this does not happen, they leave the project and the plants die,” he says.

Ueitele says only the San people or those living in extreme poverty are included in the government’s food programme, leaving others hungry.

“There’s a lack of food supply, and it takes time to be delivered,” he says.

Nutrition and Food Security Alliance of Namibia director Ben Schernick says after visiting the Omaheke region and assessing the malnutrition crisis they decided to conduct interactive nutrition sessions.

“We looked at the actions that have already been in place such as from the Ministry of Health and Social Services, and with local projects to start taking the lead on communal gardens,” he says.

Schernick said they are looking for funds to strengthen local diversified food supply and to buy equipment needed for the communal gardens in the area.

Some 45 children under the age of five years died in the last six months as a result of malnutrition in the region.

Omaheke governor Pio Nganate in his recent state of the region address said: “Noting that this calamitous situation required a multi-sectoral and sustainable approach, the governor has established a regional malnutrition task force.”

The task force is establishing a garden at the office of the governor, he says.

He says the Omaheke region is home to the second-largest population of the marginalised San community and the government’s San development programmes have been fruitful.

Omaheke health director Jeremia Shikulo yesterday said the region recorded 132 cases of malnutrition from January to June.

“There are many factors that contribute to malnutrition, of which one is lack of food security at the community level, which is caused by social factors I don’t really want to dwell on,” he said.