Feed my people, pleads Oshikuku councillor

MORE than 200 people in the Oshikuku Constituency in Omusati Region are going hungry, according to the constituency’s councillor, Peter Endjambi.

This reporter visited the village of Okapya, near Oshikuku, last Wednesday, where two people had been without food at home for several days. Jerobeam Malulu Shilongo (80) and Anna Iyambo (43), a widow with eight children, told The Namibian that they had missed out on the last two distributions of food aid, part of the Government’s drought relief programme.Iyambo said: “We have nothing, like me, I haven’t eaten for some days now.”There is no food at home and the little I went to beg last time from Samaritan villagers is finished.I am only eating omboga (spinach) now”.Shilongo showed The Namibian a meagre amount of mahangu he had received from one of his nieces.They thanked a local businessman, Alfred Abraham, who sometimes gives them food to eat.”But [that food comes] not always.We are suffering,” said Shilongo.The headwoman of Okapya village, Dalia Shinana, said she knew about the plight of the two residents and had forwarded their names to the Office of the Councillor as deserving recipients of food aid.Councillor Endjambi said that Shilongo and Iyambo were only two of many people in his constituency who were not far off starvation.The Councillor for Oshikuku constituency said many villagers in Okapya village could not get drought food during the first distribution last year because their names were added to the list of beneficiaries too late, but this time they were on the list and would receive food.But, Endjambi added, the next distribution would go only to those entitled to it: such as the old, pregnant women, children under five and the disabled.Others – even though they might be widows, orphans, children aged five and older, and many who cannot otherwise be lumped into a special category – will receive nothing.Endjambi said he was battling to persuade the national Emergency Management Unit, through its Oshikuku and Omusati offices, to extend the distribution to these other needy people, at present disqualified from food aid.He told The Namibian that last Wednesday he attended the funeral of a 93-year-old woman, meekulu Rauna Mugondja, from Omagalanga village, near Oshikuku, and later realised there was no food in the old woman’s house.”There was nothing, nothing, in that house, and we had to get maize and mahangu meal from somewhere to feed those who came to mourn the old woman,” said Endjambi.”I am not a person who likes to speak in the radio or in the newspapers, but if you see me, like now, doing so, and reporting about this problem in my constituency, then you must know that the situation is critical and I can tell you here that I am not wrong if I said that that old woman died because of hunger”.Endjambi, who said his constituents numbered 11 000, told of village headmen and headwomen coming to his office every week to report that people in their villages had nothing to eat.Endjambi told The Namibian that the latest distribution had begun in Oshikuku.Endjambi said that his area had received good rains and he urged his people to go out and work in the mahangu fields.But he admitted many people were now too weakened to do hard work and should still receive food relief to build them up, ready to work hard towards the production of the next season’s crops.Jerobeam Malulu Shilongo (80) and Anna Iyambo (43), a widow with eight children, told The Namibian that they had missed out on the last two distributions of food aid, part of the Government’s drought relief programme. Iyambo said: “We have nothing, like me, I haven’t eaten for some days now. “There is no food at home and the little I went to beg last time from Samaritan villagers is finished. I am only eating omboga (spinach) now”. Shilongo showed The Namibian a meagre amount of mahangu he had received from one of his nieces. They thanked a local businessman, Alfred Abraham, who sometimes gives them food to eat. “But [that food comes] not always. We are suffering,” said Shilongo. The headwoman of Okapya village, Dalia Shinana, said she knew about the plight of the two residents and had forwarded their names to the Office of the Councillor as deserving recipients of food aid. Councillor Endjambi said that Shilongo and Iyambo were only two of many people in his constituency who were not far off starvation. The Councillor for Oshikuku constituency said many villagers in Okapya village could not get drought food during the first distribution last year because their names were added to the list of beneficiaries too late, but this time they were on the list and would receive food. But, Endjambi added, the next distribution would go only to those entitled to it: such as the old, pregnant women, children under five and the disabled. Others – even though they might be widows, orphans, children aged five and older, and many who cannot otherwise be lumped into a special category – will receive nothing. Endjambi said he was battling to persuade the national Emergency Management Unit, through its Oshikuku and Omusati offices, to extend the distribution to these other needy people, at present disqualified from food aid. He told The Namibian that last Wednesday he attended the funeral of a 93-year-old woman, meekulu Rauna Mugondja, from Omagalanga village, near Oshikuku, and later realised there was no food in the old woman’s house. “There was nothing, nothing, in that house, and we had to get maize and mahangu meal from somewhere to feed those who came to mourn the old woman,” said Endjambi. “I am not a person who likes to speak in the radio or in the newspapers, but if you see me, like now, doing so, and reporting about this problem in my constituency, then you must know that the situation is critical and I can tell you here that I am not wrong if I said that that old woman died because of hunger”. Endjambi, who said his constituents numbered 11 000, told of village headmen and headwomen coming to his office every week to report that people in their villages had nothing to eat. Endjambi told The Namibian that the latest distribution had begun in Oshikuku. Endjambi said that his area had received good rains and he urged his people to go out and work in the mahangu fields. But he admitted many people were now too weakened to do hard work and should still receive food relief to build them up, ready to work hard towards the production of the next season’s crops.