Les forces de défense namibienne intègrent dans leurs rangs des jeunes gens au parcours difficile ( orphelins de guerre, enfants vulnérables)

Article journal New Era 14 December 2010

Over 1000 complete military course - by Helvy Shaanika

ONDANGWA - Over 1000 private soldiers, including 402 women, last Friday graduated from the Special Project Second Intake of the Military School at Oluno Army Base.

The newly trained troopers were recruited through the Namibian Defence Force (NDF) special programme that aims at recruiting liberation war children, orphans and other vulnerable youth.

Addressing the graduates, pa-rents and members of the public, Defence Minister Major-General (Rtd) Charles Namoloh, said the graduation of the Special Programme Second Intake for the NDF symbolised the fair representation of gender in the Namibian army.

Namoloh said that at the beginning of training in June, the military school had 1057 recruits of whom 52 were disqualified for reasons varying from medicals to pregnancy, indiscipline and voluntary resignations.

Namoloh registered his disappointment with the youth that were discharged from the military school due to lack of discipline and unwanted pregnancies.

“It is painful when young people miss opportunities like this because of indiscipline. You were warned at the beginning of your training that the NDF requires highly disciplined soldiers and as you have seen, those who are undisciplined have no place in the NDF,” he said, referring to eight recruits that were expelled.

Namoloh also warned parents that fail to perform their parental duties to bring up disciplined children, instead of assuming the army is a place where good behaviour could be installed into the youth.

He said in the army, soldiers are only taught military discipline but not social discipline.

The minister urged parents not to neglect their parental duties. Namholoh urged parents not to make unnecessary financial demands from the young soldiers as they need to use their salaries to further their studies for them to excel in their careers.

The defence minister further registered his disappointment with the 18 female recruits that were discharged due to pregnancy. He said young people should not allow unwanted pregnancies to cause them to lose opportunities as pregnancy can be avoided.

“We are not saying that you should not give birth, but pregnancy is not an accident, it is something that you can avoid and plan. Even the girls that are graduating today, bear in mind that if opportunities for further training arise while you are pregnant, you will miss out on such opportunities. Therefore, the fact that you have now graduated, it does not mean you should go out there and fall pregnant irresponsibly,” he said.