Birth registration:Hospi tu ls ure the idcal loc i r t ion lor

many parents but there are a nurTlberof ditTiculties. At lcast 40o/c ofbirths in Namibia do not take placein a hospital. It is therefore impor-tant for the government to proviclebilth registration facil i t ies in allparts of the country. Last year amobile registration unit was scnt tothe rural areas to assist people whowere uuable to travel long distancesby expensive trrnspol't.

Even thor-rgh some children rredelivered in hospital, parents do notalways register their children lorcul tur l r l ' rc l rsorrs. T l ld i t ior t rer lLr i rcsthem to have,a narri ing ceremony atl rornc r r l ' ter the h i r t l r .

Minister Ekand.jo said that inorder to fulf i l the requilements ofinternational agreentents such as the'Convention 0n the Rights of t lreChild, he intended to bring newlegislaticln befble parliament thisaLltulrn. UNICEF I'ras prornisecl toassist in setting Lrp systens, provicl-ing training and clevelopifg ef' l 'ec-tive publicity clrnpaigns to infbrnrcit izens of the benef its of registcringchilchen.

lf you have.just had a baby or areabout to have one, make sure yougive your chi ld the r ights, pr iv i legesand protection that ol 'f icial cit izcn-ship offers. If your chilci is born inthe Katutura State Hospital orMediclinic, the management cangive you a filrm to flll in ancl thebirth certiflcatc will be posted tcryou. Otherwise, if you l ive inWindhoek you mu\ t leg i \ ter y( ) r . r 'child at the registration ollce on thecorner of Etienne Rosseau and TinieLouw in the northern industrial area,Elsewhere in the country, parentsshtru ld regis ter thei r ch i ld lcn at aregional registration oflice, Ibrexample in Keetmanshoop. lf theyl ive in a srnal l town. such a: Kal l ts-br- r rg. then they can regis ter at thenlagrst rate s of f lce.

Wonns ro LEAR.rr{mandaforv - obi igatory. somethingthe law says )ou must do.hurdles - obstac les or d i i f icu l t ies.forecast - t ( ) predie t o l p lan inadi ance.

"One seven year-old child wasraped by his father and br-rrnt with ahot iron by his step mother," shesaid. Her face is filled with a \mixture of sadness, conpassion andanger - sadness for a world whichshould be wonder l i r l but is soimperfect, compassion fbr the childsurvivors of crueltv and abuse" arnd

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Children escope toploce of sofety inRehoboth

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Belinda Beukes of the Kid Shelter in Rehobothwon't give the names of the children. She doesn'twant them to be identified. Many have alreadybeen so severely traumatised that the shock ofpublicity ioulct destroy them completely. Butshe is prepared to talk about some of the crimescommitted against them.

Article & photos by Margaret Bradley

anger against a system which fitilsto protect thern.

In court the child's social workerwas both ineffectual when explain-ing the case and hampered byhaving to speak in English. It seemsthat for some reason there was notranslator. As a result, although thechild cried to come back to the

shelter, he was returned to hisfather.

Sexual abuse is not the onlyreason for children being sent to theKid Shelter. Some must havebeen so unwanted that they wererejected at birth or soon after.Two of the toddlers holding ontoBelinda's skirt and trying toclimb on her lap were perhapsvictims of the mother's inabilityto cope rather than her indiffer-ence. They had no naries and noexact ages when they arrived.One was left to die in the bushwhile another one was abandonedin a field. After being kept in ahospital until there was a placeavailable, they were sent to theBeukeses'house to be cared for.Both were suffering from stuntedgrowth. being only the same size asa one year-old but with the teeth ofmuch older children.

Another toddler was old enoughto talk when he came to the KidShelter but he refused to speak formonths, no one knows why. Be-

cause of his silence, some of thehelpers called him "Ta Khom",which means "Don't Speak" inNama. Belinda, who is not a Nama

ne undernotlrishedbaby even had'-dfficulty in adapt-

ing to milk.because heralcoholic mother hadfed her on tombo.

speaker, did not realise this for sometime. When she did, she stoppedthem doing it, fearing that thechild's silent shock had beenunnecessari ly prolonged because hethought he was being told not tospeak. Now he is called Walter - aname chosen by Belinda - and hehas started to talk a little once more.

Many of the children's parents are

substance abusers and they spendany money they have on feedingtheir addiction. One undernour-ished baby even had difficulty inadapting to milk because heralcoholic mother had fed her ontombo. An o lder chi ld to ld h is 'new

family' how happy he was to bethere because he no longer had topick up seeds to eat and beg formoney in the street.

The reverse side of all this miseryis the happiness brought to thechildren by Belinda and her hus-band Petrus, who is handyman,chauffeur and house father. Yet asBelinda is quick to explain neither istrained as a social worker, counsel-1or or child psychiatrist. Nor didthey intend to set themselves up asthe saviours of little children. TheKid Shelter came about because theBeukeses took children in troubleinto their own home. When theywere asked to care for more theyrealised.how great the need for aplace of safety was.

The family became too large fortheir home in 1995 so the Dutch oReformed Church offered them thetemporary use of a building; wherethey could set up a home for abusedand abandoned children, especiallythe children of alcoholic parents.Soon. however. it was clear that apermanent solution needed to be

lound. Wi th local communi tysupport, they sought funds fromdonors in order to build a specialhome and were lucky enough toget some froni Germany, theAinerican Embassy and Oxfam.

In order to'stretch the money asfar as they could, the Beukeseslearned to make their own bricksand began to build on a piece ofdonated land. Now they have ahome for up to twenty childrenand fbur house mothers. Thbshelter is almost always full, even

overflowing, with needy. children,who come from all across Namibia.One girl was refered to them fromnear the Angolan border. Theydidn't know till much later that, aswell as being abused, she was alsoHIV positive.

Though the funds paid for thebuilding, they don't cover the day-

to-day running of the shelter.If the children are ret-erred bysocial workers with a courtorder, the government PaYS asmall allowance but manychildren do not fall into thiscategory. {o bLry food hndclothing for them the Beukesesare constantly organisingincome raising activit ies. Orlfather's day, tor examPle, theYsold mcals at NXB20 per plate tothe local commr"rnity. Theyalso collect ancl sell second-hand clothes. h"old rnini birzaarsancl run ct'afi classes rnakingcandle-wick covers, p incushior.rs and litt le boxcs firrsale. Some churches sLlPPOrtthe shel ter by having a sPecia lco l lect ion.

The chi ldrcn's tt itutniLcloesn't end.when they areret'errcd to the Kid Shelter,however, since the Ber-rkeses'horne is of f ic ia l ly a p lace ofsaf'ety and not a peltnanent-horre. After a year at the tnostthey rnust retu ln. to thei fparents, be adopted or Placeclwith lbster parents, or end r-rPin an of f ic ia l ch i ldren 's home.Al'ter all the hugs and cuddles,the gt l t l t l lbod und the g i r rncs inRehoboth, not surprisinglYmany are relr-rctant to leave.

The ideal solution is [o returnthe children to caring, responsl-ble parents. To improve thechances of this happening, theBeukeses also work with drugand alcohol dependent adults atthe Lighthouse Centre tnRehoboth. Though they have triedto run rehabilitation programmesover periods of four to six weeks,they find that alcoholics return totheir drinking if counsellors areunable to monitor them. For thisreason they are now working on anew venture. In the grounds of theKid Shelter they are building twoflats to accommodate victims ofsubstance abuse.

If this project is to be successful,it seems that they will need morethan the support of the communi tY.At present the counselling given toalcoholics and drug abusers is based

fi lrc clt i ldrctt ' \ ' I r(t t t t t t(t

I r lr tr ' .stI ' t t ' r t t l v ' l tur l l t t ' . t 'L ttrt ' rr ' l 'ct ' t ' r ' t l t t t t l tc Kit lShelter sinc:e the lJeuk,eses'lu)nrc. i,t o.ft'ic'ieilly cr pLocer2t' su.fety and nzt 0 perm(r-nent hlme. After (I Ye(Ir (Itthe most they mwst returnto their plrents, be adotrt-ted or pLaced with.fbsterpar(,rrt,s, or end up in anfficial children's home.

on the teachings of the Bible. Sincethe dependency is both physical andmental a much more varied pro-gramme will be required and thecounsellors wil l need greaterexpertise in order to persuadeaddicts to change their Iifestyles.The Beukeses are hoping to travelabroad this summer to Britain andGermany in order to thank theirdonors and to learn how alcoholicsand survivors of abuse.are helPedelsewhere.

There is now an enormous needall over Namibia for places of safetylike the Kid Shelter in Rehoboth.

Namibian society is changing asthe economy modernises. Tradi-t ional s t ructures are becomingweaker while new temptatlonsappear for people to live theirIives in reckless wziys. Morepeople are migrating to urbancentres in search ofjobs and newopportunities and tamily ties arestrained or broken. As a resr-rlt,cornmunities are no longer ableto protect all thcir vulnerablernernbbrs.

Sincc childrcr.r are lef-erred tothe Beukeses fl'om as far awirY asKarasburg and Osl-rakati, i t isclear that cvery town shoulcl setr-rp its own shclter so that thcy dtlnot havc to sul' lcr the ir.rcleascdstrcss ol'movit.tg away I'rort 'r thcirknown sut'roundi n-es ancl l 'r i ertcls,even fl"om tlre langua-ec theyunclcrstand.

For those who r-rndcrtake thechallenge of carin-9 for abr-rseclchi ldren there wi l l be t ro greatfinancial gain br-rt f irr stttnepeople the cv ident happiness o1 'the chilclren wil l be rewardenough. When Bel inda gave theyolrnger chilclren a piece of paperand pencils to clraw what theYwould l ike their futr-rres to be,alrnost without exception theYdrew a house wi th people in i t .Underneath some wrote lnessagesl ike, " l love my Dad. I love myMum." What they meant wilsthat they wantecl a horne andfamily l ike the one they belongedto at the Beukeses' Kid Shelter inRehbboth.

Wonps ro LEAR.Ntraumatised - mentally wounded orhurt.hampered - prevented fiom doingsomething correctly.abandoned - left behind.substance abusers - people whodrink too mr-rch alcohol or takedangerous drugs.addiction - dependency on drugs oralcohol.rehabi l i ta t ion - t reatment g iven toenable someone to live a normallife.reckless - careless and dangerous.

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