The Down syndrome community celebrated its 2nd Namibia Down Syndrome Day (NDSD) on Saturday 20 October 2018 at the St. George’s Sports Field. It turned out to be a wonderful fun-filled day of joy and laughter.
Deputy Minister of Health Juliet Kavetuna came to support the 2018 NDSD with the following message: “My desire and aspiration is to advocate for inclusive education in laws and policies that uphold the rights of individuals with Down syndrome to receive and free an appropriate public education in the least restrictive setting, promote principles and practices designed to improve educational outcomes for students with DS and support the development of high quality post-secondary programmes for students with intellectual disabilities”.
At this day of celebration, Drs. Eline van der Linden, Chairperson of the Down Syndrome Association of Namibia (DSAN), gave a motivational talk emphasizing that “we celebrate our differences and acknowledge that even though a person with Down syndrome may look a little different, may speak a little different, may think a little different, he or she is a full human being with emotions, dreams and aspirations, and quirky habits. We also celebrate how the Down Syndrome Association of Namibia, or DSAN in short, continues to grow and is becoming stronger and in a better position to provide a good service to our DS community.”
Recently DSAN has opened a small office at the Moreson School for students with intellectual challenges and a good number of volunteers are now active in hospital outreach, membership mobilization and administration, social media, organization
of fun events and life skills training for persons with DS, and creating readiness for the buddy programme.
Long-standing sponsor FNB Namibia handed over a check of N$92,000 to DSAN as part of its ongoing support to the work of the association. Other sponsors of DSAN and the Namibia Down Syndrome Day are PWC Namibia, Koep & Partners, Joston Investments, Anticor, Coca Cola Namibia, Sense of Africa, Howard Holdings, Stampriet Farmers’ Market, Fruit & Veg City Windhoek, Super Spar Windhoek, Hartlief Windhoek, DB Audio, Kickstart Namibia, and St. George’s School.
Rap singer Reeziana dedicated a song “Oak Tree” to Beaux, a young boy with DS, and got the crowd moving and shaking. Ms. Rehoboth “Candy-with-a-C”, as it was so eloquently put by Namasiku, a DS self advocate, showed the youngsters how to “walk-the-cat- walk” with funky props. Participants played soccer, did the spoon and sack race, danced with volunteer Ebba and jumped around on the jumping castles. There was plenty of food, snacks and drinks to cool off on this super hot summer day.
In closing Drs. Van der Linden said to the sizable crowd: “Our collective positive energy and positive spirit are reflected in our motto for DSAN. We print on our tshirts ♯icandoanything because at DSAN we believe that, with love, support and a whole lot of patience and determination, people with DS can do anything they set their mind to. We also print on our t-shirts ♯iseeyou because at DSAN we see you, our beautiful wonderful babies, toddlers, boys and girls, men and women with Down syndrome, and we believe in you. You are making the world a better place by being different and adding a different perspective on life. We believe in you and your abilities, and we see you.”