Girls shunned after fires

ILENI NANDJATOONDANGWAThe saga of the mysterious fires that engulfed the homes of two families in the north has taken a new twist.The unrelated families now claim that the fires stopped after they sent away two girls, whose education is now at risk.With schools expected to resume fully soon, the families are adamant that the girls can no longer return and attend the schools they used to be educated at.After the families, one hailing from Epandulo village near Eheke in the Oshana Region and the other from the Oniihandi village at Oniipa in Oshikoto, lost all their belongings and suffered damage to their properties, they started investigating.Both families came to the conclusion that two girls, aged 11 and 16, were being “followed” by the mysterious fires. EpanduloAfter the family of 71-year-old Flavia Erastus lost everything in fires that started last November, they then decided to send the 16-year-old girl away, and the fire apparently followed her to her new home.Marina Shoopala said they had to send the girl away.“The girl is my brother's child and we have been staying with her since she was two years [old]. When the fire started, it first burnt down my mother's sleeping room, which was a traditional hut and that is where they were all sleeping.” Burnt down again“It burnt down completely, but people who were in the house managed to rescue some of my belongings. Nobody knew where the fire came from.“This room was then replaced with a corrugated iron room, which again mysteriously burnt down,” Shoopala said.“We later learnt that everywhere we put her belongings burnt down, which made us suspect that the fire was following her. We later sent her to her mother's family and the fire followed her again.”Shoopala said after sending the girl to her mother's family in the Onkumbula area of Oshikoto, they didn't experience a fire again.“Unfortunately, we are receiving calls from that family that their house is burning. We decided that the girl is not coming back,” she said.“Let the girl just stay at her mother's family because we do not want to see her again. My mother is going through difficult time and she needs counselling. We do not want her to see that child or get near her any longer,” Shoopala added. OniihandiThe Oniihandi fire started when children from the late Eliaser Kotried's homestead went to visit their uncle Jailus France Shikale's house on 30 December in the same village and a storeroom burnt down.The following day, another fire burnt down four sleeping rooms at Kotried's homestead.A day later, another fire burnt down four more sleeping rooms.“In January, different rooms burnt for six consecutive days and in March the fire went back to Uncle Shikale's home when the girl went for a visit again.“From there, we realised the fire was following her. We decided to send her to her mother's house at Onayena. The following day we were informed that the fire started there and it destroyed the whole house,” a family member said, who spoke on condition of anonymity.“Now we have decided that she must just stay there, because we have already suffered enough.”

Girls shunned after fires

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Namibian Sun 2025-05-06

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Girls shunned after fires

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Namibian Sun 2025-05-06

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