The homeless and those living in extreme poverty are more exposed to harsh weather conditions.

To establish how some survive the winter, reporter Eveline Paulus visited the underprivileged residents of Otjiwarongo and compiled this.

Waking up early on cold mornings is this group of impoverished people, who rush to the Otjiwarongo dumpsite in search of food and other valuable items to sell.

Mothers can be seen with their babies, including an unsupervised toddler about five years old.

They are at the dumpsite mainly to collect empty 2-litre bottles. A big bag consisting of about 100 bottles is sold for N$20 or N$30.

Although the group says they do not sleep at the dumpsite, some makeshift structures made of boxes and plastic are visible at the site.

Pule Garureb has been homeless since the age of 16. Now 29, he was offered a place to stay for two months by a friend in the informal areas of Otjiwarongo.

"Sometimes you are not getting something good to eat, some days you are sleeping with hunger, we were sleeping on the boxes with a few blankets."

Others, however, remain homeless, like this family, which our news team spotted searching for food from the garbage bins.

On following them, we learned they have two children, and the place they call home is an open space where they keep their blankets and other belongings.

"I do not want to steal, I don't want other people's things. We ask for jobs from the white people, but they say they already have someone doing housework for them, my man even asked them if he could rake their yards, and they say they already have a 'yard boy, so since we don't want to go to jail, this is us."

"I am asking the government to assist us, back then we were there where there was shade, but now the shade has been removed and we are sleeping in the open."

Otjozondjupa Regional Council chairperson Marlayn Mbakera has a list of more than 2400 'most' vulnerable people in need of assistance.

"They don't even wake up one morning to make fire, they don't put up a pot, there is nothing, and that is the assessment we did through my office. When someone comes to my office for assistance, we take their details and do house visits to assess if there is really a need, and only then do we put them on our database."

B2gold Namibia's employees took it upon themselves to assist some of these people with blankets, socks, beanies, food, and sanitary pads.

The General Manager of B2Gold Namibia, Eric Barnard, said, "To make life just a little more bearable for everybody, during the winter, to be able to keep warm and to be able to fill your bellies."

Although they are happy and grateful for the items they received, the dumpsite will be packed again as they will need to fend for their next meals.