• Youth

Prioritising the cry of the girl child

Enzo Amuele





The International Day of the Girl Child is observed on 11 October, as per the United Nations calendar.

Considering the staggering and overwhelming number of inhumane acts of violence and atrocities committed against the girl child, the Khomas regional executive committee of Nanso hosted a youthful parliamentary simulation in celebration of the girl child, with hopes of raising awareness that will motivate lawmakers to take up the cry of the girl child with fierce and deliberate intentions of ending crimes against women.

The celebration was held on Monday, 12 October, at the University of Namibia main campus. The event involved an orchestration of a live parliamentary session with the roles of the speaker of parliament, the deputy speaker and other members of parliament taken up by young people.

The parliament simulation was tasked with presenting motions in the interest of creating policies that protect the girl child under the theme ‘Prioritising the cry of the Girl Child’.

The main aim of the event was to spearhead the conversation of alternative policies and possible remedies that can serve as a curbing mechanism behind the injustices faced by the girl child.

Involving young people

The participants were young people from different walks of life who debated motions such as the legalisation of the death penalty, the introduction of a sex offender’s registry, the deployment of state resources to apprehend perpetrators and more.

According to Nelago Johannes, the event was aimed at involving young people in bringing about resolutions that will help curb the current problems that we are facing.

Nanso said it intends on creating frequent spaces such as these to allow for conversations that trigger solutions directly from the young people affected by such injustices.

Agents of change

The role of the speaker of parliament was taken up by Marco Hakusembe, with the deputy speaker being Ashley Schwarz.

The guest speaker of the event was the deputy minister of sports, youth and national services, Emma Kantema-Gaomas, who assured the youth of the strides government is making and informed them that young people are the agents of change and they should work towards that.

Gaomas further emphasised that it is important for the youth to focus on the boy child in the same way we do for the girl child as this will help to find solutions.