South Africa

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Namibia: Girl Child Movement joins AIDS War

April 19, 2006

By Andnetwork .com

The Namibia Girl Child Organisation has in principle decided to throw its weight behind and closely cooperate with various local organisations working among orphans and vulnerable children in the country.

This decision was taken at the organisation’s three-monthly national meeting that was held last weekend at Jacob Morenga Secondary School in Katutura. Branches from around the country were represented at the lively meeting of young girls. Topics discussed during the conference included: the children’s movement and early child to child approach; insight into an early childhood centre; connecting the neurons; HIV/AIDS and the girl child; cooperatives for health; and global warming and the girl child.

Sibongile Majambe, national organiser of the Girl Child Organisation in the Western Cape, was a special guest at the two-day conference under the auspices of the Namibian Women’s Association (NAWA).

“The ‘Child to Child’ approach in assisting communities is as old as the hills because other children in a family have always looked after their younger siblings.

However, this system requires the implementers to be well prepared and coached for the task at hand, whether it is helping children with their homework, early childhood education or running health clubs,” said NAWA’s chairperson, Otilie Abrahams, in welcoming the delegates to the conference on the first day. Her husband, dr Kenneth Abrahams, in his contribution to the conference spoke on “Connecting the Neurons: the Importance of Early Childhood Education”.

“Children learn a second language best before the age of five because that is when the neuronal connections of language are ‘hard-wired’. Thus, we often miss the optimum time for learning, since children only start at the age of seven. What we now know about the early growth of the brain should impel us to re-examine our current education system, in particular with regard to early childhood education.

Through inadequate implementation of early childhood education we are wasting human potential and depriving society of its benefits,” dr Abrahams said.

Janice Henckert, head of the Pre-Primary section at St. Georges Primary School, discussed the cognitive and motor skills necessary for children to acquire, as well as the way to inculcate these.

The coordinator of the HIV/AIDS programme of the Namibia Red Cross Society, Fredrika Herero, encouraged abstinence from sex among the youth in efforts to fight the pandemic. “Girls should not think that they are ready for sexual activity simply because their bodies are changing. Sex is an adult activity, requiring a sense of adult responsibility.

Premature sex and child bearing often cause long-term changes to the body, which could seriously endanger a woman’s health later in life as well as her chances of bearing healthy children,” Herero, who claimed that women are 20 times more likely to contract the HIV/AIDS virus than men, said. Yesterday the Girl Child movement at David Bezui-denhout Secondary School started a four-day winter school in mathematics and science for its members.