NWR: Giving back to the nation

An overview of NWR’s corporate social investment projects
Namibia Wildlife Resorts is committed to empowering and uplifting Namibians through a range of social responsibility initiatives.
ELLANIE SMIT
Namibia Wildlife Resorts (NWR) takes great pride in corporate social investment and says as a leading provider of hospitality services in Namibia, it is their responsibility to play a critical role in improving the quality of life for Namibia's previously underprivileged communities.

Here are some of the projects that NWR is involved with:

Giving hope to the girl child
According to NWR spokesperson Nelson Ashipala, menstruation should not get in the way of the girl child.
In collaboration with the University of Namibia’s fourth-year law students, NWR launched an initiative to provide dignity pads to schoolgirls in the Hardap Region.
This project was undertaken to curb the high rate of menstruation-related absenteeism among junior and senior high school learners in deprived communities. Pads worth N$30 000 were collected and distributed.

Giving hope through sports
Ashipla says that sports can be a potent vehicle for individuals to help them escape the poverty trap. "Unfortunately, often confronted with a lack of adequate opportunities, individuals suffering from poverty only sometimes have the chance to practise sports."
NWR is therefore proud to be affiliated with the Namibia Annual Sports Awards, a platform that recognises and rewards talent in sports.

NWR Hospitality Institute
According to Ashipala, the NWR Hospitality Institute (NWR HI) and its programmes are developed in line with the Sector Skills Plan (SSP) for the tourism and hospitality sector in order to create a skilled workforce, improve firm-level service delivery, and increase the attractiveness of Namibia as a world-class tourist destination in a highly competitive global tourism market.
He says the institute’s strategy further supports the Harambee Prosperity Plan, a targeted action plan to accelerate development in clearly defined priority areas, including tourism. The institution trained 115 students across all centres for the year 2022.

Internship programmes
Over the years, NWR has offered internship programmes.
For the year 2022, NWR took in around 100 interns from different institutions, says Ashipala.
He adds that this programme allows students and recent graduates to gain real-world work experience in the tourism industry. Internships range in duration and are typically assigned based on the student's or graduate's field of study.