A computer lab at Otjimbingwe Primary School is adding value to the lives of learners and community members.

When the school principal of Otjimbingwe Primary was appointed in 2019, he realised that there was only one computer available for the use of learners.

Whenever there were school projects, the learners borrowed the principal's private laptop to complete their work.

The principal had to wait hours on end to get back his laptop since there were many pupils.

"And I had a dream to say, what if we get a computer centre here at school? What if our community members can also come? Almost, even if it is half of the technology advancements we experience in towns and cities."

In response, the United Nations Development Programme extended a helping hand to the school by donating computers to set up a computer lab and providing access to free Wi-Fi for a year to empower the learners and community members.

"And that's how we started setting up the centre. After school, our learners are queuing up. Everyone wants to come in, read something, do research, do their projects, and so on. And that's what we wanted. And community members are coming in now. Instead of probably driving to Karibib just to send a CV, we can do it online here."

Yrika Maritz is the Head of Experimentation at the UNDP Accelerator Lab Namibia. "We're hoping that other organisations will then follow suit in terms of providing sponsorship to this interesting business model that the Otjimbingwe community has set up. You started from a small primary school.

Gerald Shangombe, who provides free computer lessons to the community with the aid of one of his students, highlighted the impact of the computer lab.

"The people that I'm training now, I'm not training them so that they know how to use computers only, but they will be the ones running the computer lab for the resource centre, because I'm permanently employed at the school. I have my core duties that are waiting, so these people will then be the ones taking over the resource centre, and I will just be overseeing that everything is done properly, as it is supposed to be."

Pius Gomachab, a learner at the school, shared that the laboratory has reduced its dependence on other people. "With the internet now in our hands and the computers, we are very grateful, because we started learning each individual letter from the keyboard and how to firmly or accurately access the computer for beneficial needs, like online job searching."

Community members will soon be required to pay a small fee for computer services to enable the school to pay for wireless internet next year.