03 Jul 2017

She was introduced to the harsh realities of life at a tender age when both her parents passed on and was then left in the care of her aunt who did her best to fill the empty void in her heart.

At the time, 32-year-old Lenyatso Odisitse of Mokungwane was only a student and the challenge of losing her mother impacted negatively on her academic performance which deterred her to proceed to senior secondary school.

Life was not easy for her as her aunt did not have any formal employment as such having another mouth to feed was such a big challenge for her.

Her peers may have been gifted academically, but she vowed to look for a job and try to supplement her grades.

Even though her peers proceeded to the next level, it was not the end of the world for the orphaned Lenyatso who kept soldiering on despite facing the challenge of staying home unemployed.

“Whatever hurdles you may face, take a leap of faith and act towards the direction of the person you are destined to be,” she says.

This is why she never had second thoughts when the poverty eradication programme was introduced and instantly wanted to be one of the beneficiaries to enable her to improve her life for the better.

She responded by registering her name with the office of the Social and Community Development and she was assessed and packaged in 2015.

Today Lenyatso is the envy of many, having started small with her home bakery where she baked bread and sold to Mokungwane Primary School.

“I started small by selling-homemade bread to our local school,” she said with a warm smile across her face.

The S&CD office, she said, bought a stove, baking trays as well as flour and other ingredient to help her establish herself.

Unlike some people who abandoned their government funded projects, Lenyatso took this as a stepping stone to building her bright future.

Working hard and not expecting handouts, is what continues to set her above the rest.

She advises young people to follow in her footsteps and work hard to turn their dreams into reality.

After realizing that the business of supplying bread to the school was not as profitable as she anticipated, she started diversifying her business by opening a tuckshop.

With proceeds from the combined projects, she was able to sustain herself and her only child.

Ipelegeng was also one of the programmes she benefited from and at some point, she was engaged to supply bread to Ipelegeng workers.

The community of Mokungwane also support her business by buying fatcakes and home-made bread rolls from her.

Once in a while, she gets orders for scones for wedding celebrations and parties.

Every sector of the economy has its own challenges and small scale businesses like Lenyatso’s are no exception to this as she complains of people who fails to pay her after getting her products on credit.

She regretted the mistake of supplying her stuff on credit which made her suffer a serious setback as some creditors failed to pay.

She however, vowed never to supply her stuff or sell anything on credit.

Adding to her woes is the crime rate in the village, having been a victim of house break-in where over P6 000 was stolen after her house was broken into.

She however, responded by enhancing security at her house by putting up burglar bars.

She commended government for the Poverty Eradication Programme, saying that it has taken her out of poverty.

She also gave credit to the Self Help Housing Agency (SHAA) programme which she used to build herself a house.

Of course the profit she got from her bakery were enough to sustain her but it was not enough to put up a structure for herself.

After realising that she has come of age and needed to be independent, she informed her family of her intentions to build herself a house which her aunt whom she was left under her care, gave her all her blessings.

Lenyatso went knocking at the SHAA offices to apply for a SHAA loan, of which she was built a two and a half house through the turn-key SHAA programme.

“I never thought one day I would have my own house, thank you to the SHAA programme."

Poultry production was also one of the projects she wanted to pursue, but had no sufficient funds to undertake.

After facing a stiff completion from the local community due to the mushrooming of tuckshops, she resorted to poultry production.

She was able to purchase equipment and day old chicks with her savings.

“I usually stock around 150 to 100 chickens and sell them for P55 each,” she said.

With the proceeds from chicken sale she is able to pay her SHAA loan which she pays at P300 monthly.

She sells her chickens to Mokungwane, Mathakola and Palapye communities.

She also takes advantage of events held in her village especially kgotla meetings to sell her chickens and other produce.

Last year when the Presidential Task Force visited Mokungwane village to check the progress of government funded projects, she took advantage of the visit to sell food to the task team and government employees who accompanied the team.

“I cannot let occasions like this one slip because that is how I make a living,” she stated.

The 32 year old young lady wants to see her project grow into a big company that takes part in tendering as producing at a large scale is more beneficiary than producing at a lesser scale. ENDS