11-year-old gives birth in Maun
Boniface Keakabetse | Monday June 9, 2014 10:31
A 12-year-old, and a 13-year-old, were also registered among child mothers as the tourism hub saw 285 underaged births at the local hospital, Letsholathebe II.
A Non Governmental Organisation in Maun called Feed A Child revealed that five babies were born by 14-year-olds and 35 babies from 15-year-old girls. The remaining 242 babies were born to teenage mothers older than 15 years.
Feed A Child coordinator, Julia Pelser said her NGO obtained these figures from the Ngamiland district Child Welfare Committee which comprises of all the NGO’s and government departments dealing with childrens’ issues. She said the situation where children give birth to babies is worrying and needs immediate attention.
Pelser described the welfare of children in Ngamiland as horrible. She said official figures show that over 4,000 children in the district are orphans and vulnerable children and the number is on the increase.
According to Pelser besides high incidences of teenage pregnancy and orphanhood, a high number of children face malnutrition in cases where their poverty stricken families fail to adequately feed them.
Reasons for growing numbers of children going hungry could be attributed to high poverty rates as Ngamiland is the second poorest district in Botswana despite abundant natural resources. Ngamiland is also prone to natural disasters like livestock diseases which affect households relying on cattle husbandry.
She said her NGO strive’s to help the government in feeding these hungry young mouths. She said Feed A Child is providing free daily meals to children in Boyei and Boro villages in the Central district. The NGO also feeds vulnerable old people. “We feed a total number of more than 138 children and elderly daily. Monthly we provide an average of 3,000 meals to those listed in our feeding programme.” She said
She said they provide a meal called Nutri meal to all their beneficiaries. Elderly and children are provided with 75 grams of Nutrimeal daily which is enough to sustain their health and ensure their nutritional needs. The meal is easy to prepare as it is mixed with water and ready to be served.
Pelser further added that some of the benefits of the Nutrimeal include: Improved eye-sight, brain development, development of healthy skin, skeleton development, maintainence of balanced body fluids, keeps away opportunistic diseases
Pelser revealed that there are calling on members of the public to donate P2,50 a day or P75,00 a month to help them adequately feed the children and the elderly. He said through the initiative they encourage everyone to know that with just as little as P2,50 a day or P75,00 a month they can help feed hungry children in the district.