Kunene Reels in Poverty

from All Africa

New Era (Windhoek)

NEWS

By Wezi Tjaronda
Windhoek

Poverty in the Kunene region has been attributed to the poor state of education in the country. Residents blame the pervasive poverty in the region on the low level of education, which leads to their children not being employed or unable to secure full-time employment.

This is contained in the Kunene Poverty Profile, a village level participatory poverty assessment that was carried out between January and March last year in the region. According to statistics quoted in the profile, 40 percent of people above 15 years have never set foot in school, while the literacy rate is 59 percent. In comparison, the national literacy rate stands at 81 percent. The region has 41 percent of its 68735 people classified as poor, while 11 percent are extremely poor. With 23 percent of the economically active population not employed, the main sources of income for most of the people are cash remittances, farming, non-farming activities and pension payouts.

Kunene is Namibia's second largest region. Residents cited education, services, unemployment, drought, poor grazing and alcohol abuse, as some of the priority areas that need to be tackled to alleviate poverty in the region. The profile said many children dropped out of school before reaching Grade 10 because of parents' failure to pay school fees, walking long distances to schools, as well as teenage pregnancies.

It said parents could not send their children to schools far from home because they cannot afford accommodation costs. The profile noted that children even resorted to criminal activities as a coping strategy, while parents were introducing their girl children to contraception at an early age to prevent pregnancies. Among others, children were involved in sexual relationships with older men but parents did not say anything because they were benefiting from the relationships. "Some of these relationships are the only source of income for the household," said the profile.

One Outjo resident quoted in the profile said: "There is no coping strategy for this. There is nothing much you can do about it. We are stuck in the cycle of poverty." According to the residents, those perceived to be poor included the oppressed, or the uneducated, the landless, those without animals or those with only one or two goats, those with no resources to develop a better living, those that receive poor wages, ones with children who do not go to school, the unemployed and those that steal and break into shops.

Residents in informal settlements of Outjo and Sesfontein said the root causes of poverty were unemployment, lack of education, poor quality services, inward migration of job seekers, nepotism and too many children. Those in resettlement areas said unemployment, limited education, alcohol abuse and lack of housing were the root causes of poverty while unemployment, lack of education, alcohol abuse, lack of livestock and unsustainable farming were identified as root causes of poverty in the remote areas of Sorri Sorris, Otjondeka and Otjitanda.

Most areas except Outjo, the only municipality in the region, have few businesses to absorb the number of people looking for work, hence depended on agriculture and subsistence farming. Even then, those with an education, the profile said, did not feel well qualified to take on some jobs. "Participants clearly questioned the quality and applicability of their education."

Still, some parents believed education was vital for a better life, while others felt that owning cattle was more important. Most participants still dreamt that their children would gain higher education and make something of themselves and improve their families.

"This demonstrates the people's high regard for the potential of education to address their poverty," said the profile.