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Friday, October 21, 2005 - Web posted at 7:49:06 GMT A swimming pool where joy has been drowned out * TANJA BAUSESIXTY-SEVEN San people, living in the old swimming-pool complex at Okahandja, are fighting for survival. |
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They have no food and no medical assistance. Paul Chapman says he was a farmworker for a Herero family at Ovitoto for as long as he could remember. Then, in 2002 the farmer came to him and his family and told him his services were no longer needed. The San family was told to leave. Chapman and his family moved from Ovitoto to Okahandja. He had no education and could not find any employment other than the odd garden job. The plight of Chapman's family and the other forgotten San in the community came to the attention of Lischen Hoabes when she encountered the San couple, their two children and three grandchildren living under inhumane circumstances on the outskirts of Okahandja. This prompted Hoabes, a resident of Okahandja, to fund the Change Our Life San Project. Emma Geingos, also from Okahandja, is helping by teaching the children after hours under a tree - there is no money to send them to school. Hoabes and Geingos felt that it was their duty as responsible citizens and Christians to help the San community improve their living conditions. "Many San people are working on farms and are still getting paid with alcohol," said Hoabes. She started to look for accommodation for the San and in 2005 received approval from the Okahandja Municipality to move them into the buildings at the swimming pool. The pool had been empty and deteriorating for years. The rooms have no doors, no ceilings, no toilets and there is no electricity. "We were moved here and forgotten again by the Municipality and the Regional Council," Hoabes said. The 67 people living there recently received 30 bags of maize meal from the Okahandja Regional Council - the first time the council has distributed food to the San. The San all do casual work at Okahandja while the old, sick and children stay at the swimming pool. COLD COMFORT Chapman has started a small garden but he says a lack of basic gardening tools and seed makes this very difficult. "We are all former farmworkers and know how to work the land and look after livestock, we just need help to get started," he told The Namibian. Many of the women are skilled bead and ostrich-shell workers but lack materials and have no start-up capital for a crafts project. The people sleep on the floors on blankets, as there are no mattresses or beds. There is also no stove and food is prepared on an open fire, which is not a problem until the rainy season starts. In a small, cold room in one of the buildings lies a severely handicapped San woman of about 40 years old, named Anna Piet. Anna cannot talk or move any part of her body. Her mother, Maatjie, looks after her and her seven siblings. Her mother has to turn her to prevent bedsores, as she cannot move on her own, She has to clean her, as she cannot use the toilet. Anna can only move her eyes and laps up water and thin porridge with her tongue. The family originally received a disability pension for Anna but since the papers were lost, there has been no income. On a thin mattress near Anna is another Anna with her two-day-old daughter, Sophia. Sophia was born with only Anna's mother assisting at the birth because the ambulance service costs N$1 per kilometre for State patients. The two Annas and the rest of their small community worry about the missing ceiling boards, stolen long before they were allowed to move there. The roof is no longer waterproof. Many of the San do not have valid identification documents or birth certificates, as they were born on farms and the births were never registered. As a result, it is very difficult to estimate their ages or to apply for pensions or any other Government grants. The despair and frustration of the people became clear when one of the San women offered her two-month-old baby to a woman who was there at the same time as The Namibian. She said she and her child had no future and that the baby should be taken away to have a better chance in life. |
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