By Kaula Nhongo
WINDHOEK, March 26 (Xinhua) -- Namibia's devastating drought from 2013 has resulted in a very high influx of young men to the capital Windhoek, mostly from the Kavango east and west region in the northeast, as it has left them without any means of survival.
This is because most of the people in this part of the country rely heavily on raising livestock and crop farming with very few formally employed.
About 60 percent of the households practise crop farming while 27 percent are into livestock agriculture.
With no skills or qualifications, these young Namibians flock to the city, with a belief that urban areas offer a better life.
Windhoek, as the biggest and highly developed urban area, has become a magnet for most of these young people.
Among these young men who moved to Windhoek from the North is 31-year-old Alfred Arombola.
"When there is no rain we get zero from our lands and our cattle die so it is better to come to town," Arombola said.
He left his family's house and job as a cattle herder, which did not really pay him much, in 2016 to come and stay in a corrugated iron shack in Windhoek.
"I was the only one working and what I earned was not enough to help the whole family survive," he said.
When he came to Windhoek, Arombola looked for a job, but like many others before him, he failed to secure one.
For some time, he scrounged, begged and borrowed to survive in the city until someone introduced him to the Men on the Side of the Road (MSR Namibia) organization where they helped him find part time work as a gardener.
MSR Namibia helps connect unemployed men to job and training opportunities and gives them the chance to make an honest living.
The organization, established in 2007, works with these men to enable them to gain marketable skills so that they can become self-sufficient.
MSR Director Crystal Beukes said that most of these young men are moving to urban areas with no skills to offer which is very risky because in most cases the person will not find anything sustainable that can help them look after their family back home.
In her view, there is really no quick fix to the unemployment problem because usually those who come with no skills end up becoming very isolated, which creates more problems for them.
The organization helped Arombola find a job as a garden worker one day a week, but he still needed to find more work to make it possible for him to send money back home.
Now that he has joined MSR, Arombola wakes up early every morning and walks to one of the job sites where he sits hoping someone who needs help in his yard or at his business will pick him up.
He walks about 10 km from his location to get to the spot where he sits at a traffic lights corner.
The Men on the Side of the Road are picked up for different jobs such as loading trucks, clearing yards, watering plants and washing cars where they earn between 50 to 150 Namibian dollars (3.5 to 10.4 U.S. dollars) for the job, depending on the "contractor".
There are times when Arombola goes for a whole week without anyone offering him work, which he said can be very discouraging, but he keeps going back.
"It is not easy, and one needs to have discipline in order to make it in this business because there is always a chance that someone will pick you up," he said.
To survive, Arombola needs about 500 Namibian dollars (about 34.7 U.S. dollars) a month for groceries but with that amount, he can only afford to eat one meal a day if he wants the food to last through the month.
Some people might think that his life in the rural areas was better than the one he has now, but surprisingly Arombola said he is actually happy here.
Beukes said that her organization has a membership base of about 1,600, although many of them do not actively participate in MSR anymore.
Last year, the organization connected about 523 young men with different companies and people looking for help.
The training offered by MSR in different skills and money management has helped these young men to better their lives and offer them many opportunities.
