Digital Literacy/Use for Namibia's Unemployed

Quarterly Report

MSR’s Digital Literacy/Use for Namibia’s Unemployed

August 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 both in meeting its financial goal and 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. With these funds we have achieved the following:

• We have purchased 30 computers, 26 desktop PC’s and 4 staff computers.
• We have secured, installed and made operational computer labs with new leases in our offices in Walvis Bay and Windhoek, and upgraded our computers in our Swakopmund computer lab.
• Most importantly with the campaign funds we were able to hire and retain additional staff members to teach computer literacy to our unemployed members and provide daily assistance to our members with free internet and computer use to search for and gain employment or become successful entrepreneurs. But just as importantly our staff members provide much needed empathy for our destitute unemployed members. They listen and provide much needed support and respect for our members. These staff members are identified below.
• We are averaging 15 visits on a normal day to our offices and can go up to 25 on busy days, especially when there are attractive vacancies available, by members getting free computer use to help them secure sustainable economic sufficiency.
• We completed our project with volunteers visiting from Worcester Polytechnic Institute to prepare our first MSR interactive online workshop on Basic Living Skills and Financial Literacy. https://sites.google.com/view/msrtraining/home
• We have initiated proposed 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 throughout all of Namibia.
• We have initiated 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). The President recently announced free primary, secondary, college and tertiary education to help alleviate future unemployment of Namibia’s youth.

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.

• 2nd Quarter Report (PDF)