About us

Aspire Namibia

Who are we?

Aspire Namibia was founded in 2021 with the goal of improving personal, social, educational, and employment outcomes for Namibia’s underserved children and young people through mentoring. Our recipients are high school students and youth living in Children’s Homes (known locally as Child and Youth Care Centres).

Challenge

According to current data, 21% of Namibian youth are not in employment, education, or training. Namibia is one of the most unequal societies in the world, and this inequality is due to differences in the networks of introduction available to different sections of Namibia society, not just wealth.

Solution

At Aspire, we train mentors to encourage and support young people in developing their skills and education to find a path to long-term employment. Mentors and mentees meet will occasionally meet for 7-9 months. Goals and deadlines are established during this time in the areas of education and learning, family and community, sport and recreation, and career development.

Ms Joyce Luanda (MSc.)

Founder of Aspire Namibia

…is a logistician passionate about innovation and social impact. She has a bachelor’s and master’s degree from the Namibian University of Science and Technology and the University of Sussex, United Kingdom respectively. She has developed a keen interest in the Agri-food sector, which was the focus of her master’s dissertation. Also, she is a member of the Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport UK and the Chartered Institute of Procurement and Supply UK. She is a philanthropist at heart and the founder of Aspire Namibia, a Namibian mentorship and career guidance initiative. She is very passionate about helping young people realise their full potential with the available resources.

“It is what we make of what we have, not what we are given, that separates us from others”

– Nelson Mandela.

Our story

The idea for Aspire Namibia was born in 2020 after several visits by Joyce to Walvis Bay and noticing the alarming rate of unemployed youth in her hometown.

The devasting reality of school dropouts and teenage pregnancy was distressing and filled her mind: these are supposed to be the future leaders of Namibia. With limited mentoring programmes in Walvis Bay, she knew that she had a part to play to make a small but significant improvement in these kids lives.

Aspire strives to bring skills and a new perspective of the wider world to teens and young adults half a world away.

Founded in 2021, Aspire Namibia is a local mentorship organisation dedicated to use available resources to allow teens and young adults build resilience, resourcefulness, and responsibility as they work toward economic stability and self-reliance. By providing such key resources and support networks, Aspire Namibia inspires and motivates teens and young adults to develop the confidence, skills, and global worldview to build a better life.

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Long-Term Impact

Our primary goals are to increase independence and well-being. We assess our impact using a combination of psychometric and community-level indicators.

Meet Our Team

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