Namibia News

WHO Namibia supported the Council of Churches in Namibia (CCN) seminar on mental health to raise awareness on mental health promotion and suicide prevention amongst the church and community leaders and mobilize efforts in support of mental health care at community level.  The seminar with church leaders, lay counselors and youth leaders was held on 15 and 16 November as part of the World Mental Health Day commemoration.   

WHO Namibia with support from the Regional Office in Africa trained 45 school staff, nurses, and school board members from schools in the Oshana region as part of the SURGE flagship programme. The aim of the training was to increase capacity of schools to implement the health promoting school initiative and prepare better to minimize impact of health outbreaks and other public health events on schools.

Namibia joined the rest of the world in commemorating World Diabetes Day on 14 November under the theme “Access to diabetes care” which highlight the importance of prevention and response efforts.

The Ministry of Health and Social Services with support from WHO, trained national and regional risk communication and community engagement pillar members on Infodemic management. The spread of the COVD-19 pandemic has been followed by unprecedented and repeated waves of misinformation and disinformation generating what has been defined as an Infodemic. This overabundance of misleading information has been amplified by social media and affected the deployment of public health responses, generating fear and anxiety in local populations about preventive measures and vaccination campaigns.

The Ministry of Health and Social Services trained f 60 health workers and partners from different sectors to strengthen the country’s capacity to prevent and control neglected tropical diseases (NTDs).  The training was conducted on 24-28 October 2022 in Swakopmund.

The Ministry of Health and Social Services with support from WHO held a National Consultation meeting on 15-17 November 2022, on the National Policy on the Rights, Protection and Care of Older Persons in Namibia to review and make recommendation on the draft policy. By 2050, the number and proportion of people aged 60 years and older in the population are estimated to increase from 1 billion (2019) to 2.1 billion globally.  In Africa, this increase is estimated to be 220 million compared to 65 million in 2018.

Health experts from Namibia and Angola gathered in Ondangwa on  7 November for a four (4)-day meeting to strengthen cross-border collaboration for disease prevention and control. The meeting was convened by the Namibian Ministry of Health and Social Services in partnership with WHO with support from the Government of Japan.  

GOBABIS- As she reflects on the havoc the Delta variant of the SARS-CoV-2 had wrecked in the Omaheke region over a year ago, 46-year-old Elna Christiana Rooi’s tears flow freely down her face. 

Rooi lost her life-time partner, who was also the father of her children- and sole breadwinner to COVID-19  in May of 2021. She believes the outcome could have been different if they had sought medical attention sooner. 

“To be honest we were very scared of going to the hospital because most of the people who went there did not come out alive,” says Rooi. 

INDHOEK - As the focus shifted towards managing the global Covid-19 pandemic, essential health services such as routine immunization suffered a blow with many children subsequently missing out on their routine immunization. 

“The issue of Covid-19 affecting our immunization was felt at a national level,” says Tomas Ukola, the Khomas Health Regional Director. The routine immunization programme and maternal and child health days were disrupted primarily because of lockdowns and the decongestion happening in many health facilities. 

RUNDU - About ten kilometres on the eastern outskirts of Rundu is the Mayana village, an area characterized by flood plains. In fact, Mayana means flood plains in the local dialect and is named after the low-lying ground surrounded by water. 

“We have a lot of water bodies down here and mosquitoes breed everywhere,” explains Johannes Lipayi, the AFRO 2 Malaria project coordinator for Mayana and Sikondo villages, situated in the Kavango East and West regions.