Men on the Side of the Road's ("MSR") goal is to raise $10,000 to supply fire extinguishing buckets filled with sand and fire extinguishers to its unemployed members who live in unsafe unincorporated, informal areas in Swakopmund, Walvis Bay and Windhoek, Namibia combined with monthly fire safety training sessions for its members.
Shack fires are prevalent in the informal settlements due to a lack of community fire safety awareness and access to prevention methods. This causes families to lose their homes, belongings, and, in some cases, their lives.
Student volunteers working with MSR from Worchester Polytechnic (WPI) in the USA, spent time in Namibia conducting research from field observations, interviews and community feedback to address both gaps and barriers to fire safe behavior in informal communities. Based on this research, interventions to bolster fire safety awareness and prevention were designed to be low cost, feasible and effective so as to be integrated into the daily lives of MSR's members living in informal settlements.
In the first year, this project will aim to equip over 500 families living in informal settlements with both the tools and ability to prevent fire outbreaks in their communities. These trainings will continuously improve the conditions in the informal settlements via recurring fire prevention training sessions hosted alongside MSR's existing programs to address unemployment.
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