About 10 to 15 babies are treated for malnutrition daily at the Witvlei Clinic in the Omaheke region.
Senior nurse at the Witveli Clinic, Petrus Kaiseb, told The Namibian recently that malnutrition is among the main conditions the clinic treats, particularly among children aged five and younger.
Earlier this year, Omaheke governor Pijoo Nganate during his state of the region address said the number of child deaths linked to malnutrition in the region has dropped.
He says the region recorded 40 deaths between April 2023 and March 2024, dropping to 19 between March 2025 and March 2026.
However, Kaiseb says the poverty and lack of stable household income at Witvlei has left many families struggling to provide enough food.
“There’s no basic income in this place.
The only source of income is the grant, the old-age grant,” he says.
According to Kaiseb, some households have several people depending on the grant received by senior citizens.
“Our main case individually is malnutrition because our community is really suffering,” Kaiseb says.
He says many families in the area have no stable source of income.
The clinic also treats recurring cases of diarrhoea, which Kaiseb links to poor hygiene and the difficult living conditions experienced by some families.
He says food insecurity can force parents to spend much of their time securing food, while poor sanitation can increase the risk of contamination.
Kaiseb says children identified as malnourished are placed on a nutritional support programme at the clinic.
The children receive a nutritional supplement from Monday to Thursday, with the clinic preparing and providing a glass of protein supplement to each identified child every morning.
He says the programme is aimed at children identified by healthcare workers as requiring additional nutritional support.
The clinic also serves surrounding farms, meaning its healthcare services extend beyond the Witvlei settlement.
Kaiseb says the clinic had a malnutrition related death last year which was reported to the district health authorities.
He says addressing poverty and food insecurity remains important in improving the health and wellbeing of children in the community.
Ministry of health spokesperson Walters Kamaya referred The Namibian to the Omaheke regional health director Jeremia Shikulo, who did not respond to calls and texts sent to him.
Witvlei youth leader Elwin Laksman (32) says unemployment has left many residents dependent on government grants as their main source of income.
Laksman calls for greater government support through vocational training centres (VTCs) to equip young people with skills that could help them find employment or create their own income.
“If the government can assist us with things like vocational training centres (VTC) or soup kitchens because most children are only surviving from grants,” he says.
