Growing numbers of street children worry Govt

ABOUT 10 000 children who have been identified as orphans or vulnerable children are not receiving social grants because they don’t have identity documents.

This was said by the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Gender Equality and Child Welfare, Erastus Negonga, when he briefed the media in Keetmanshoop yesterday after a visit to the Karas Region.Negonga said a total of 141 768 orphans and vulnerable children (OVCs) receive social grants from the government. Each child gets a N$200 monthly grant.He said the ministry has placed 12 000 OVCs in foster care and is struggling to get homes for another 7 411 children.He called on the Ministry of Home Affairs, spiritual and traditional leaders to combine their efforts to reduce the backlog of children without identity documents so that all OVCs can receive government grants.Negonga said another issue giving the ministry a headache is the increasing numbers of street children. Although Government has done its best to keep children off the streets, the ‘street kid’ phenomenon is one of the major challenges faced by his ministry. He called on the public to help confront the problem by reporting children found roaming the streets to the ministry’s offices. The Permanent Secretary also expressed concern over the alarmingly high incidence of gender violence.’The situation has escalated to an alarming level, where all stakeholders must work together to address this alarming situation,’ Negonga remarked. Negonga said consultations with stakeholders suggested that gender violence, passion killings and baby dumping are the result of people’s frustrations coupled with a shortage of social workers and psychologists to provide counselling. According to Negonga, only 15 of the 65 qualified social workers employed by the ministry are Namibian citizens. ‘We believe GBV such as passion killing can be defused by establishing early-warning systems and through the engagement of social workers,’ said Negonga. Negonga said teenage pregnancy, rape and sexual abuse were also on the increase, adding that it has been proven that alcohol abuse contributes to this phenomenon. Against this backdrop, he urged the youth to refrain from alcohol and drug abuse. luqman@namibian.com.na