The Champions of Namibia

A three-day dialogue called The KP Reach regional programme took place from the 4^th to the 6^th of September in Windhoek, Namibia, where a group of awesome, powerful people met. They’re called the “Champions for Namibia”, and they were engaged in discussing how to challenge the norms, strengthen agency and harness the potential and energies of people for action.

Among the dialogue facilitators was Ms Delene Van Dyk, who is a South African psychosexual educator from the Southern Africa HIV and Aids Information Dissemination Service, also known as SafAIDS. “I will be pushing your buttons,’’ she said, and indeed she did. She unveiled a powerful beginning to the workshop, beginning with helping to change people’s mindsets so that they don’t discriminate against an LGBT person when they see them, as well as how to deal with hostile situations you’re an LGBT person. Delene has trained about 20,000 groups of people in countries all over the world including Namibia. The KP Reach is an advocate for change in health. It’s a regional consortium of key population networks, wider civil society and private sector partners. It has been formulated by the Key Population networks and non-government in Southern African to address the high levels of HIV/Aids infection among key populations which include LGBT+ people and sex workers, and to strengthen agencies by working closely with NGOs, CSOs and government identified sectors within Namibia. The three-day workshop aimed to challenge and address the homophobia within Namibia and build the relationships by sensitising areas where most LGBT+ and sex workers find it hard to access services.

One of the highlights of the workshop dialogue was meeting the Namibian champions who work in the health, justice and media sectors, as well as local traditional authorities.

The binary box on sexuality and human rights was unpacked, and the different aspects of what sexuality is and how it’s portrayed in a social norm was explained, as well as how human rights come in play in the sphere of violations. The workshop broke down discrimination and showed its effect on mental health. It was made clear by the fact that so many people in the community have resorted to suicide. Some of the issues for key populations that came up were fears of being “outted”, and the fear of reporting abuse or violations because of how they’re received at police stations.

Another issue that was raised was students going into sex work to pay for tuition after being cut off by their parents because of their sexuality, as well as threats from parents.

Society is also a key player in discrimination against females that can result in gender-based violence.

The champion’s role in this Key Populations Reach comes from their stance of how they will use their positions to help sensitise fellow colleagues, create safe spaces for the LGBT+ and sex workers, effect policy changing by changing people’s mindsets of the LGBT+ and sex workers with in Namibia.