30 May 2013

Ms Onnetse Mokgothu, one day, woke up from a deep slumber outraged and exhausted by a life of poverty.    

As she looked at the two children lying on a mattress, Ms Mokgothu sobbed knowing that like their mother, the children would grow up without ever knowing a decent and dignified life.

It was in that instant that the 21year-old Phuduhudu orphan made the decision that she would break the cycle of poverty circulating in her family. So at this tender age and yet passionate to leave a legacy by empowering herself, the young woman made the decision to try the government initiative of backyard gardening. 

The determined young woman then set out to change her life and to ensure that her children would have a better life than she did. “I wanted nothing to do with poverty,” said the mother of two who was among the first group of Batswana to benefit from the initiative.

The drive is built on the ethos of poverty eradication, an initiation by the government to eradicate abject poverty and restore dignity. Through the initiative, the beneficiaries are given free tailor made economic generating packages of their choice. 

In Ms Mokgothu’s case, she received free water storage tanks, an irrigation system, a garden and free expertise from government officials to keep the project running. “With this garden, one is able to graduate from poverty,” she said before describing it as a life changer if properly taken care of. 

A small settlement in the Kgalagadi North constituency,  poverty levels in Phuduhudu are amongst the highest in the country.  Since the establishment of her garden, the passionate young farmer has had one harvest where she cashed up to P400 every week, which reignited her quest to defeat poverty.

Her products included tomatoes, which she was selling at P1.50 for the small ones and the biggest P4, whilst a bundle of spinach was going for P5. The majority of the customers happened to be residents mostly teachers, villagers and other government officials on trips to the settlement. 

“When I am selling from home I can make up to P100 a day, but when I go around the village I make around P150,” she said.

After a good harvest, Ms Mokgothu added that she is in the process of pruning the leaves to allow fresh ones to emerge, which will give the garden new life. 

But life is not without challenges. She is now struggling because the tomatoes have dried after being attacked by an unknown disease.

To worsen the situation, the experts from the Ministry of Agriculture have taken long to respond to her call. Her only viable solution has been to uproot the tomatoes and start afresh hoping that whatever attacked the produce would not surface again.

Notwithstanding that, she hailed the support from government officials but highlighted that they only need to speed up their response time. “If they can improve on the time they take to respond, that would save us money,” Ms Mokgothu said.

And what does she plan to do with the money she has made from the vegetable sales? Ms Mokgothu beamed with excitement for the unforeseen yet expectant future. 

“I want to build myself a modern two-roomed house,” said the mother who not so long ago survived on a food basket from the government’s social safety net.

Living a life with rejuvenated hope, Ms Mokgothu, who is also a volunteer with environment watchdog, Green Scorpion does not harbour any regret for being excluded from the government safety nets where the underprivileged receive monthly hampers.

She hopes to one day stand tall and tell the story of a life lived in poverty and the impact the government made on her life by bringing back hope and dignity. ENDS