Women grow for their community
[caption id="attachment_34365" align="alignright" width="405"] HELPING HANDS: Posing alongside a watermelon they produced are, from left, Violet Fani, Pumla Dyafta, Lungiswa Khuhlana and Nobendiba Tyutu, in one of their abundant gardens in KwaDwesi. Picture: BRIAN WITBOOI[/caption]
A SMALL project seven KwaDwesi women started to grow fruit and vegetables for their families has turned into a huge feeding scheme for the poor.
The Likusasa Lomama Women Co-op developed a backyard garden in 2012. Members jointly bought R100 worth of seedlings for the garden. Today the produce from their many gardens feeds more than 50 families in KwaDwesi.
From a hill in KwaDwesi, rows of carrots, pumpkins, potatoes, tomatoes and melons can be seen.
The gardens are these women's pride and joy. They plan to use them to bring positive change to their community, which is dominated by poverty and unemployment.
Likusasa Lomama Women Co-op chairwoman Pumla Dyafta, 33, said the group ran a soup kitchen on two days a week. "KwaDwesi Extension is probably one of the city's most underdeveloped, poverty-stricken areas," the mother-of-two said.
"The mamas and I are all housewives whose husbands do odd jobs. Instead of waiting around for handouts or money to come in from our spouses we invested in the gardens, which only cost us R100 to start off."
Yesterday, a number of people stood in a long line outside Dyafta's home, where the women run the soup kitchen.
Instead of promising hungry residents that they would always feed them, the women motivate old and young people to develop vegetable gardens of their own.
"The idea is to cultivate a culture of taking the initiative instead of waiting around for handouts from others or for the government to fill our tummies or give us jobs.
"We help those who are willing to follow in our footsteps, to get their gardens started. All they need is to save up a bit of money to buy their seedlings. Government officials are busy people. If KwaDwesi's people are going to wait for them, they might wait a while," Dyafta said.
Food not sold or used for the soup kitchen is divided up for the women's families.
"With empowering a nation, we also want to create a culture of sharing no matter how little we have – and in the long run to inspire other poor communities to do what we do." - Alvené du Plessis
