Maryknoll is working in the rural parish of Nyangana serving the RuGciriku tribe of northern Namibia.

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The Nyangana Mission serves the 40,000 member Gciriku tribe in northeastern Namibia.  This is a rural area that suffers high levels of unemployment, alcoholism and AIDS.  The quality of education is poor with no local opportunities for professional training. Our program provides outreach to the youth of the mission.  We provide an alcohol free environment where youth come together for recreation and professional development.  The youth assume leadership responsibilities for their own youth organization.   Youth activities are integrated with parish and vicariate programs.

An elected team of youth voluntarily staffs the youth center.  The center provides indoor and outdoor meeting areas, a stage, a small library, a television with DVD, snooker and fusball, as well as an outdoor basketball court.  This past year an outdoor toilet has been constructed as well as an addition to a study hall located in the girl's hostel which is located adjacent to the youth center,  The addition will eventually become a larger, better managed library facility. A newly arrived Peace Corps worker has already begun to organize book collections in the USA and she has begun to train selected hostel girls in the art of maintaining a library.

We also have a separate facility for our computer center where professional courses are offered. A newly renovated women's residence has begun to be used this past year. Now, women who live in rural communities far from the parish center are able to come and live on campus while they study computer and office skills.  The newly remodeled residence also contains a classroom dedicated to the teaching of our Office Skills Course.  We have acquired four new licenses for the Rosetta Stone Computerized English as a Second Language Program.  This has proven an important addition to our program.  Although English is the national language and is a requirement for employment in the office environment, the comprehension by our students is very weak.