Life is hard – and cold – in the shantytowns

THE poverty and hardship families in Windhoek’s informal settlements face are not confined to these areas, but are characteristic of the bigger picture of the plight of the poor in the country.

Justine Balie lives with her four children between the ages of six months and 14 years and her sister in a shack in the Okahandja Park informal settlement. She has one mattress that she sleeps on with her baby – the other children and sister sleep on two blankets on the floor. She has six blankets for her family, two for the floor which are a substitute for a mattress and four which are divided between the six people to keep warm. ‘It is very cold and my seven-year-old daughter often wakes up in the night crying from the cold,’ said Balie. She collects firewood and makes a fire at night, from which she takes coals to put into a tin to keep the shack warm. ‘I know this is dangerous, especially with the children around, but I don’t know what else to do,’ she said. Balie has no work and thus no fixed income. She is paid for looking after some of the neighbours’ children during the day.’But many cannot afford to pay or they pay very little,’ she said. With the money she buys maize meal to feed her children. ‘My dream is to open a kindergarten for the children. There are so many here who just sit around while their parents are at work,’ she said. Helene Daniel, who lives in the Kilimanjaro informal settlement with her four children and one of her sisters’ child, is in the same situation although she is lucky in the sense that she has two beds in her shack. The children share one bed with three blankets and she sleeps on the other with one blanket. ‘It is very cold and me and the children all put on our jackets and long pants when we go to bed to try and keep warm,’ said Daniel. She has been living in the shack with her family sine 2000. She too has no fixed income and collects firewood which she sells to earn some money to support her family. Both women said that even one extra blanket per child would make a world of difference to their families. But their stories are not the only ones. There are many people living in the informal settlements who sleep on the floor or on old mattresses and have only one thin blanket to keep them warm – and that blanket in many cases has to be shared with someone else.