A teenager (18) from a high school near Oshakati says she is constantly ridiculed because of her appearance.

This has become so extreme that the tall, slim eleventh-grader even considered ending her life.

She says the bullying started in Lüderitz, where she attended primary school.

The teenager, whose name is not being used for privacy reasons, says: “I was tall and had long arms and long fingers.

My classmates laughed at me. They bullied me and I felt uncomfortable. I arched my back to look small.

“I only had two friends at school. Nobody else wanted to be my friend. I was bullied on the street.

“Even when they met me in a store, they made fun of me.”

The teenager says she sometimes skipped events in town, such as the popular annual Lüderitz Crayfish Festival, because she was afraid of being laughed at.

“I always wanted to hide because I thought I was not created by God. There was a time when I wanted to drown myself in the sea,” she says.

Because she was taller than all the girls at her previous school, she began asking her teachers if she could go to other countries with tall people.

MARFAN SYNDROME

The teenager says she has been diagnosed with Marfan syndrome grade 1, an inherited disease that affects the connective tissue.

People with Marfan syndrome are tall and thin and have unusually long limbs.

It affects the eyes, heart, blood vessels and skeleton, according to mayoclinic.org.

“I use one eye for reading,” says the teenager.

She says she underwent surgery to correct a drooping lens at Windhoek Central Hospital five or six years ago.

She says a doctor ordered an artificial lens from India and gave it to her free of charge.

Some nurses at the hospital laughed at her condition, she remembers.

“I felt uncomfortable. I didn’t feel good. I was insecure,” she says.

When she moved to secondary school in Ongwediva, the bullying by students started again.

The girl said she reported the incident to the principal and the students were called in, but the bullying never stopped.

IT FINALLY STOPS

“They continued this year and one day I got fed up with their bullying and defended myself. I told them I didn’t like the way they were treating me. Now they’ve stopped,” she says.

The teenager says she now wants to raise awareness for people with Marfan syndrome.

Sanet Steenkamp, ​​Executive Director of Education, Arts and Culture, says bullying is systemic and the ministry takes it seriously. The ministry has introduced a policy to that effect, she says.

“These problems are truly systemic and need to be actively addressed. We are also working on a school safety campaign where police officers will be specifically trained on how to deal with and address bullying issues with our students.

“So this is not something we take lightly. We also believe that schools should reach out to the child’s parents, guardians or family members and have an honest conversation,” she says.

Steenkamp believes that children exposed to bullying should be referred to therapists to treat the long-term effects.

EFFECTS

According to clinical psychologist Shaun Whittaker, bullying is a big problem in Namibia and the country is not doing enough to combat it.

“The teasing is mostly about racism, sexism and homophobia and I think that’s why the focus is constantly on looks,” he says.

He says that bullying has a huge impact, especially on the self-esteem of victims.

“I think it’s important to counteract that and of course help our teenagers to convey more positive messages about themselves, which is a big problem in a country like Namibia with a racist background,” says Whittaker.

According to social worker Sofia Negonga, bullying has psychological effects on victims, such as a lack of self-realization, difficulty concentrating and a feeling of having no meaning in life.

According to social worker Lovisa Nghipandulwa, a child who is bullied is likely to develop depression.

“It can also lead to isolation. The child cannot meet and socialize with others. It can also affect the child’s academic performance.”

“And when they’re at home, they worry about how they’re going to go to school tomorrow,” she says.