As part of blog action day, which is today, we’ve been asked to blog about poverty. I know that this blog post deviates from the topic of University life and being a first year, but I’m still going to write it as it involves a very special person whom I admire enormously! When we were told to blog about poverty this person immediately sprang to my mind. She is one of the poorest yet most amazing people that I know. Her name is Emah.
During my high school years I lived in a small Free State town called Harrismith. We “inherited” Emah, the char/ house keeper/ maid (I’m not sure what the politically correct word is) from the people who sold the house to us and she became a part of our lives in Harrismith. It didn’t take long for this voluptuous Zulu lady with her big laugh and smile to creep into our hearts and find a firm place in our family. Emah who was in her late forties at the time never had a bad word to say about anybody and does not have a resentful bone in her body. She constantly showered my family and pets with affection- she laughed with us and she cried with us as well. She probably has one the biggest hearts of anyone that I know.
Even though Emah is all smiles she leads a hard life. She lives in a township outside Harrismith called Tshiame and is one of the poorest of the poor in that area. She shares her shack and small property with her husband (who was ill for along time), her married son and his wife and a few chickens. Emah only had the opportunity to go to school until grade 2, when she had to leave but despite this she is very intelligent and with a completed education I have no doubt she would have gone very far in life. She is fluent in Afrikaans, Zulu and Sotho and can read and write a little bit.
Although we would have liked to have paid Emah a huge salary, this was not possible, but she always got extra food and old clothes from us. My mom helped her earn extra money by pricing old clothes of ours and other items and Emah would sell them at the taxi rank, getting a large percentage of the earnings for herself.
In 2006 my family had to move to the city and so they left Harrismith and Emah behind. When we left Harrismith she flattered us by saying that she did not want to find another job as a char as her next employers would not be the same as being with us. We suspect that at some point in the past she must have had a bad experience with her employers. Sure enough Emah didn’t look for another job. Instead she started small entrepreneurial ventures of her own in Tshiame. She grows vegetables in her garden and uses these to feed her family. The extra veggies get cooked and sold for a couple of Rand near the local school. She also cooks pap and other food and sells it cheaply. Not only this, but she uses her generator to sell electricity. Sometimes she cuts the grass at the side of the road and uses it to make beautiful hand brooms. Although all of this only earns her a minimal income, Emah has managed to keep her family alive and has also saved enough money to buy bricks so that she can turn her draughty shack into a more solid brick house. Last time I saw her she was saving money for cement and then the next step would be the actual building of her house.
Emah’s initiative, entrepreneurship, determination, refusal to give up or to rely solely on handouts and her big heart and warm personality is why I have the hugest amount of respect and admiration for her. She is truly someone that I look up to and I think that with the right prompting and encouragement a person like this can empower herself and her community. Is this not a better solution to poverty than constantly giving handouts and by doing this encouraging people to beg and to expect handouts? Shouldn’t we rather help people to help themselves and their communities? In this way one small ripple will spread quickly and not only help to relieve poverty, but also change people’s attitudes about poverty.
I miss you Emah and I take my hat off to you. You are one very special woman and we need more of you in this country...
During my high school years I lived in a small Free State town called Harrismith. We “inherited” Emah, the char/ house keeper/ maid (I’m not sure what the politically correct word is) from the people who sold the house to us and she became a part of our lives in Harrismith. It didn’t take long for this voluptuous Zulu lady with her big laugh and smile to creep into our hearts and find a firm place in our family. Emah who was in her late forties at the time never had a bad word to say about anybody and does not have a resentful bone in her body. She constantly showered my family and pets with affection- she laughed with us and she cried with us as well. She probably has one the biggest hearts of anyone that I know.
Even though Emah is all smiles she leads a hard life. She lives in a township outside Harrismith called Tshiame and is one of the poorest of the poor in that area. She shares her shack and small property with her husband (who was ill for along time), her married son and his wife and a few chickens. Emah only had the opportunity to go to school until grade 2, when she had to leave but despite this she is very intelligent and with a completed education I have no doubt she would have gone very far in life. She is fluent in Afrikaans, Zulu and Sotho and can read and write a little bit.
Although we would have liked to have paid Emah a huge salary, this was not possible, but she always got extra food and old clothes from us. My mom helped her earn extra money by pricing old clothes of ours and other items and Emah would sell them at the taxi rank, getting a large percentage of the earnings for herself.
In 2006 my family had to move to the city and so they left Harrismith and Emah behind. When we left Harrismith she flattered us by saying that she did not want to find another job as a char as her next employers would not be the same as being with us. We suspect that at some point in the past she must have had a bad experience with her employers. Sure enough Emah didn’t look for another job. Instead she started small entrepreneurial ventures of her own in Tshiame. She grows vegetables in her garden and uses these to feed her family. The extra veggies get cooked and sold for a couple of Rand near the local school. She also cooks pap and other food and sells it cheaply. Not only this, but she uses her generator to sell electricity. Sometimes she cuts the grass at the side of the road and uses it to make beautiful hand brooms. Although all of this only earns her a minimal income, Emah has managed to keep her family alive and has also saved enough money to buy bricks so that she can turn her draughty shack into a more solid brick house. Last time I saw her she was saving money for cement and then the next step would be the actual building of her house.
Emah’s initiative, entrepreneurship, determination, refusal to give up or to rely solely on handouts and her big heart and warm personality is why I have the hugest amount of respect and admiration for her. She is truly someone that I look up to and I think that with the right prompting and encouragement a person like this can empower herself and her community. Is this not a better solution to poverty than constantly giving handouts and by doing this encouraging people to beg and to expect handouts? Shouldn’t we rather help people to help themselves and their communities? In this way one small ripple will spread quickly and not only help to relieve poverty, but also change people’s attitudes about poverty.
I miss you Emah and I take my hat off to you. You are one very special woman and we need more of you in this country...
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