Digital Literacy/Use for Namibia's Unemployed

MSR a Namibian donor based NGO's (formerly "The Men on the Side of the Road") "Digital Literacy/Use for Namibia's Unemployed" Project http://goto.gg/68419 continues to make great strides through its digital staff and 3 computer labs to help over 3000 disadvantaged unemployed Namibian members find employment or become economically self sufficient entrepreneurs. This Project was kicked off through GlobalGiving in early February 2025 with the initial fund raising goal of $90,000. By the end of 2025 our initial goal was exceed by raising $90,500. These funds bought 36 computers, provide free internet service and allowed us to hire 3 computer specialists in MSR's 3 offices in Windhoek, Swakopmund and Walvis Bay who provide our unemployed member's computer literacy. The $90,500 goal reached allows us to continue this Program throught 2026.

We recently raised our Digital Literacy fund raising goal to $165,000 so that we can continue this very successful Program through 2027-2028.

We are excited to have developed a partnership with an AI-powered career assessment company known as Bloom Career Center bloomcareercenter.com run by a former MSR Peace Corps Volunteer. As part of Bloom's "giving back" mission they have agreed to contribute a percentage of their sales to MSR's mission.

MSR's updated and improved website went live during this quarter: msr.org.na 

We again thank our donors for their support of this Project to help Namibia's poor and destitute unemployed find employment or economic self-sufficiency.

• Brochure (PDF)
  

November 2025

MSR’s (formerly “The Men on the Side of the Road”) “Digital Literacy/Use for Namibia’s Unemployed” Project http://goto.gg/68419 continues to make great strides in the implementation of MSR’s digital strategy to help disadvantaged unemployed Namibians find employment or become self-employed. Our campaign has raised $65,300 (72.5%) of our $90,000 goal.  We will start a matching campaign in December to help reach our $90,000 goal by the end of the calendar year. Our $90,000 goal is targeted at funding the Project for two years through 2026.

 With the funds raised so far, we have achieved the following:

• We have secured, installed and made operational computers and computer labs for our unemployed member’s use for free in our offices in Walvis Bay, Windhoek, and Swakopmund.
• • We have hired additional staff members to teach computer literacy to our unemployed members and provide daily computer use assistance to our members on their quest to find jobs or become self-sufficient.
  • We are averaging 15 visits by unemployed members on a normal day at each of our computer labs and can go up to 25 on busy days.
  • We have successfully placed many of our members in training programs such as welding and office administration.
  • We have initiated entrepreneurship training for many of our unemployed members.
  • We continue to work on partnerships with the Namibian College of Open Learning (“NAMCOL”) and the Namibia University of Science and Technology (“NUST”) to co-develop a curriculum of online training and workshops to assist our unemployed members to gain employment or economic self-sufficiency.
  • With these online programs we will expand our services beyond our office locations to all of Namibia’s unemployed.
  • We are near completion of an update of MSR’s webpage with a Namibian based web design firm.

  This MSR Project aligns with Namibian President Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah’s number one priority to address Namibia’s unemployment issue (Namibia is No. 1 in the world with the highest unemployment).

  We again thank our donors for their support of this Project to help Namibia’s poor and destitute unemployed find employment or economic self-sufficiency so they can house and feed their families.