Swakopmund — The newly appointed Minister of Gender Equality and Child Welfare, Rosalia Nghidinwa, urged desperate mothers to refrain from killing their unwanted babies, but rather to 'dump' them at her ministry if they see no other recourse.

The minister was speaking during the opening of a four-day retreat to craft an annual sectoral execution plan that was held in Swakopmund and which concludes today. The sectoral plan will be used as a guiding tool to implement ministerial strategies geared towards achieving National Development Plan 4 (NDP4) goals.

"I would like to call upon all the mothers, especially teenage mothers not to dump their babies, but to approach the offices of the ministry countrywide for counselling. They are human too and have the right to live and will most probably make meaningful contributions to the development of the country," she said.

Nghidinwa said that apart from baby-dumping her ministry will also focus on the problem of widespread teenage pregnancies, violence against women and children, gender discrimination, alcohol abuse, malnutrition of children under the age of five, as well as the HIV/Aids pandemic this year.

She urged all stakeholders to continuously seek ways in which they can ensure that disadvantaged women, men as well as children, can be empowered.