Pregnant and sleeping under a tree

…Vulnerable women seek shelter close to Outapi hospital

Under the relentless heat of the sun, a group of pregnant and sick women congregate under the sparse shade of a lone thorn tree about 400m from the Outapi District Hospital.

The group of about 20 women struggle under oppressive poverty and social marginalisation.

Most of the women are from the Zemba tribe in Angola. They hang plastic sheeting on the branches of the tree to help shield themselves from the sun’s harsh rays.

Maria Silas, from Onawa village in the Anamulenge constituency, is one of the women seeking shelter out in the open under the little shelter provided by the tree.

She tells The Namibian she has been living under the tree for two months.

Silas is sick. She says she has an eye problem and believes she’s living like a “wild animal”.

She says her body is exposed to wind, scorpions and snakes, especially at night.

“I used to sleep outside until a woman who was here to care for her sick husband suggested I join her in her tent,” Silas says as she stirs her pot balanced over a fire. “If she goes home and I’m still here, I will be sleeping outside again,” she adds.

The mother of three prepares a simple tomato and onion soup, her only meal for the day.

Silas laments the fact that she has no other food to cook.

“I don’t even have flour to cook pap,” she says.

She and her fellow women rely on unpurified water from the canal for both drinking and bathing.

Christine Mwatilevi, another resident of the open makeshift shelter, is busy gathering torn cement bags to use as a mattress. Despite having a few blankets, she says she finds little protection against the harsh weather, especially at night.

“It’s very difficult to sleep outside,” Mwatilevi says.

As a pregnant woman who is also sick, she worries about the health of her unborn baby, as well as her own well-being.

Mwatilevi, originally from Otjisangera village in Angola, says she has been living under the tree for five months.

Both Mwatilevi and her mother Lina Titus do not know how old they are.

Titus tells The Namibian she and Mwatilevi don’t have anything to eat.

They survive by searching in the dustbins around Outapi for food, while collecting torn old cement bags from construction sites.

“We cannot stay in the shelter at the hospital, as it is very full,” she says.

According to Titus, they don’t receive any food aid from the government, town council or business community.

Theresia Tobias (27) from Otjitazu village, is another one of the women living under the tree. She is heavily pregnant.
She and some of the other women busy themselves by sewing baskets.

Tobias says she previously stayed under the same tree in 2017.

She returned to Namibia last month to deliver her baby and says she will move to the hospital when she starts to experience labour pains.

She says the shelter built for pregnant women is filled to capacity, which has forced them to seek some form of shelter under the tree.

The women, many of whom were not wearing shirts when The Namibian visited them, appear very friendly and hopeful that their plight will soon be heard by the government.

Health and social services minister Kalumbi Shangula, however, told The Namibian yesterday he was not aware of the women’s plight.

Shangula said the current policy is that if somebody is sick or pregnant and deserves to be admitted, they will be admitted, but those who do not deserve to be admitted, should stay at home.