The Speaker of the National Assembly, Saara Kuugongelwa-Amadhila, visited and toured the Cheshire Home Facility in the Zambezi region on Monday. 

The speaker commended the work of the facility and appealed to community members to support the initiative.  

Cheshire home matron Sister Faustina Haushiku says the facility has three programmes, that include a residential programme, outreach and outpatient as well as mother-and-child workshops, where facilitators teach the mothers how to improve the lives of their children. 

"Besides the residential programme, there is an outreach and outpatient programme. During the outreach, our team links up with schools and clinics in the villages of the Zambezi region. Children with physical disabilities and their families are visited and given support and advice on how to best care for their children, and children in need of physiotherapy or wheelchairs are referred to come to the Cheshire home."

Haushiku informed the Speaker that among their resource challenges is the issue of undocumented disabled children. 

"We have several children with disabilities that fall within the cracks and do not receive any support from the government. There are children with disabilities born to parents without documents or to parents with foreign documents; these children cannot be registered." 

The facility's only income-generating scheme is a guesthouse that is no longer profitable. 

Kuugongelwa–Amadhila said she was happy to see that the centre offers inclusive education. 

On the issue of documentation, she emphasised that Namibia is a signatory to international bodies that require us to have humanity.

"I want to reiterate my call on the rest of Namibia to truly assist initiatives such as this one. Now you have raised a number of issues, and they include the status of children born to parents who may not be Namibians. I believe in addition to me relaying this concern to the respective offices, the mayor would also assist in that regard. I went into exile when I was 12. Here I am. I am what I am because of the generosity of people who don't know me, because of humanity, and therefore Namibia, being a benefactor of humanity or human treatment of others, cannot fail humanity in that regard."

Katima Mulilo Mayor Kabende Kabende assured the facility that the council will look into possible income-generating schemes for the home.