Founder of Jobs Unlimited dies

A well-known figure in the country’s labour industry, Rosa Barrett-Smit (54), died at Swakopmund on Friday.

She had been fighting cancer for the last year and a half. Originally from the Spanish island of Majorca, in 1982 Barrett-Smit came to Namibia from America where she was raised and educated.With a Bachelor of Science degree in Education, she started Namibia’s leading employment agency Jobs Unlimited.Her business partner Heila van Vuuren said yesterday: “For 21 years she was Jobs Unlimited”.She built an employment agency which boasts about 150 job listings a month, 700 clients and about 15 000 applicants waiting to be placed at any one time.Barrett-Smit’s condition deteriorated severely in October and in December she went to live at her home in Langstrand.She was admitted to the Cottage Private Hospital on January 5 and died shortly before 14h00 on Friday.Her brother from Spain recently left Namibia after visiting with her and her children at the coast.”Rosa will stay with us through our memories and her footprints that she left behind.Her spirit and life has inspired us one and all and we will do justice to her legacy,” said her colleagues at Jobs Unlimited yesterday.She is survived by four of her five children.Originally from the Spanish island of Majorca, in 1982 Barrett-Smit came to Namibia from America where she was raised and educated. With a Bachelor of Science degree in Education, she started Namibia’s leading employment agency Jobs Unlimited. Her business partner Heila van Vuuren said yesterday: “For 21 years she was Jobs Unlimited”. She built an employment agency which boasts about 150 job listings a month, 700 clients and about 15 000 applicants waiting to be placed at any one time. Barrett-Smit’s condition deteriorated severely in October and in December she went to live at her home in Langstrand. She was admitted to the Cottage Private Hospital on January 5 and died shortly before 14h00 on Friday. Her brother from Spain recently left Namibia after visiting with her and her children at the coast. “Rosa will stay with us through our memories and her footprints that she left behind. Her spirit and life has inspired us one and all and we will do justice to her legacy,” said her colleagues at Jobs Unlimited yesterday. She is survived by four of her five children.