Jolien Jansen: ‘Mother’ of Keetmanshoop’s street children

KEETMANSHOOP – It is rare for people to provide food for street children here, but local resident Jolien Jansen has gone a step further – sending some to school.

Upon seeing some boys sweeping her yard and doing other work almost every weekend, this reporter was curious to know who they are and approached their employer, Jansen, for answers.’It is not child labour, they are like my own children,’ she responded. Jansen, who runs three shebeens with her husband and their two grown-up children in Keetmanshoop, said she felt sorry for the street children who were always chased by the police when they were searching for food.’I started buying food, and drove to town where most of them hang around. I sat with them on the pavement, and gave them the food. They told me their stories of how they ended up on the streets – either their parents are all dead, or they had no money at home, or they were neglected, or from jail,’ she explained.With the desire to change their lives, Jansen asked them if any of them wanted to go to school, and seven out of about 20 children, aged between seven and 12, said they wanted to go to school.Assisted by Karas Region People In Need (PIN) project coordinator Gertruida Apollus, an agreement to get them admitted into school and exempted from paying school fees was made with the Ministry of Education, while Jansen and PIN paid for the children’s hostel, transport and other costs. Karas PIN is part of Namibia PIN, an organisation focused on supporting families and communities affected by tuberculosis (TB) and HIV-AIDS.The six boys and one girl were sent to the Vaalgras Primary School, where some started Grade Three and others Grade Four. However, some of the children kept returning to Keetmanshoop, so the two ‘mothers’ decided to move them from Vaalgras to the Nowak Primary School at Tses, and later to the SC Vries Primary School at Kosis village.While at Kosis, they apparently also started influencing other children to dodge school and misbehave in class, and that put a lot of pressure on the school management.In 2009, six of them decided to quit school and returned to the streets of Keetmanshoop. ‘They held a meeting with me one day, and told me ‘thanks but no thanks, do not waste your money to pay for school because we do not want school’,’ said Jansen, who is now the grandmother of two boys.One of the boys, Hieronymus Matroos, now 16 years old, remained in school and is now in Grade 10 at the Keetmanshoop Secondary School. Matroos’s father allegedly denied paternity and his mother is nowhere to be found, and that is how he ended up on the street.He now stays with an uncle (his mother’s brother). Apart from Matroos, three other boys are still in contact with Jansen, and visit her almost every day to assist her with work, and get food and money as compensation.Julian Boois, 21, told Nampa that he and his brother were amongst the boys who were sent to Kosis and dropped out.’Mother Jansen met me and my elder brother when I was seven years old, and she took care of us. She still gives me food, money and buys me clothes. My mother died when I was seven, and I do not know who my father is,’ said a tough-looking Boois.Boois stated that he and his brother ended up on the street because their unemployed aunt did not take care of them, and she was always fighting with her husband.’My aunt and her husband do not intimidate me anymore because I am mature now, and can take care of myself,’ he said.His brother, who Boois and Jansen only described as a ‘troublemaker’, refused to speak to Nampa and did not want to give his name.The two young men have since moved back to the aunt’s house, but still hustle for money and food by working for Jansen and some farmers in the area.’I do not want to go to school. I just need a job so that I can work and make money,’ said Boois when asked what he wishes to do in life.Jansen noted that she has seen the street children grow and some have had babies, but she was not sure where they are now.In 2003, Jansen also took 22-year-old Benody Makas under her wing, who was staying with her unemployed grandmother and aunt after her mother died.Jansen started paying for Makas’s education from Grade Seven until she graduated from Grade 12.Makas now works as a clerk at the Keetmanshoop Magistrate’s Court.’She is like my mother. I assisted her with housework, and she paid for my school and bought me clothes until I finished school. After that, she helped me apply for a job too, and now I am working,’ said a thankful Makas.Jansen said out of all the children she assists, Makas is the only successful one to date. The kindhearted woman is still continuing her work with destitute children, and is currently paying the school fees and buying clothes for Jasmine Swartz, 17, a Grade 11 learner at the J.A Nel Secondary School in Keetmanshoop.Swartz works for her as a housemaid because her parents have no work, and she needs support.Jansen said Swartz is a brilliant girl, and she is confident that Swartz will pass Grade 12 with flying colours. Jansen is now busy saving for Swartz’s tertiary education.’We must love the children. It does not matter if it is a street child or a destitute, let’s help them and make their lives better. That is what I am trying to do. As a mother, I hate to see children suffering,’ she said.Apart from the street children and Swartz, Jansen is also currently assisting six other school-going boys – the same boys that this reporter saw working in her yard in the Noordhoek suburb.The boys attend school and assist Jansen on weekends – cleaning, loading and offloading goods at her businesses and other jobs – and they receive between N$20 and N$40 per day. Fortunately for them, these boys have family and they never stayed on the street. They work for pocket money to buy food and clothes, as some of their parents do not work.’With the money I get here, I buy sugar and bread at home, and help the elderly and other poor people when the teachers at our school ask us to do sometimes,’ said 15-year-old Bared Kooper, a Grade 10 learner at the Suiderlig High School.Giovan Vries, 14, from the Krönlein Primary School and Henry Smith, 19, also from Suiderlig, say they save the money with ‘Mother Jansen’ to buy school shoes and socks.Jansen is very strict, and always tells them not to drink alcohol or smoke. But the boys admitted that at times they buy alcohol, but always use their money wisely.Approached for comment, Apollus confirmed that Jansen is the ‘mother of street children’ here.’Jansen is very helpful. Most of the boys that we sent to school, we got them from her. When they quit school they returned to her house, and some of them even used to sleep there,’ said Apollus. The Chief Executive Officer of the Keetmanshoop Municipality, Paul Vleermuis, told Nampa on enquiry that there are no programmes or plans in place to assist street children.’You see, street children in the South are very few, so we do not have plans in place,’ said Vleermuis. Currently, there are a less than 10 street children and destitute elders seen roaming the streets of Keetmanshoop daily, and some of them at times snatch tourists’ bags and steal around town. – Nampa

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