A monthly social grant could be the only source of income supporting an entire family.
Yet accessing this lifeline can mean spending hours waiting under a blazing sun and sometimes struggling just to get through the gate.
This was a case at Opuwo.
Forty years after the UN recognised development as a human right, millions remain locked out of economic and social progress.
Malnutrition remains a critical issue in the Erongo Region, with Chief Health Programme Officer Tuyenikelao Mwashekele from the Family Health Division at the Erongo Directorate of Health warning that poverty, food insecurity and limited access to nutrition services continue to threaten children’s well-being.
Swapo Party Secretary General Sophia Shaningwa has highlighted that challenges such as poverty, unemployment, and inequality continue to persist in Namibia.
Unemployment, low wages, and socio-economic pressures are driving Omaheke residents into severe debt.
This emerged during a Parliamentary Standing Committee on Economics and Public Accounts hearing, where local stakeholders laid bare the region's financial crisis.
An amount of N$1,600 might be someone's savings, but for 77-year-old Frans Geiseb, from Omatako Village in Otjozondjupa Region, the monthly old-age pension grant is more than a personal lifeline.
It is the only source of income sustaining a household of about 25 family members.
Unemployment has forced many residents of Omatako village in the Tsumkwe West Constituency to rely on selling firewood as their primary source of income to support their families.
Omatako is one of the villages in the constituency, pressed by unemployment.
The work is labour-intensive.
The Kavango West Region has introduced a number of projects to address socio-economic developments such as unemployment, poverty, food insecurity, and climate-related vulnerabilities, among others.
While some quarters celebrate Independence Day, more than two hundred people living on the outskirts of the Walvis Bay municipality dumpsite say they have little to celebrate as they continue to struggle for survival.
Corruption, inequality, and growing social divisions took center stage as President Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah delivered a firm and reflective midnight address, marking Namibia’s 36th Independence Day.
