'I Do Not Need To Be Hired By Anyone, Instead I Can Hire Others'

Like most children who grew up in families that struggled to make ends meet, Mokoatsi Ramaleka of Ha Selemo in Maphutseng has had a tough upbringing.

“My family was struggling heavily. My father was not working except to till the land to provide food for us. Sometimes he could not afford to plant anything on our fields,” Ramaleka recounted.

Under his family living conditions, food was a priority for his father and mother, to ensure the children have had something to eat at the end of each day. School and other needs took a back seat.

“I ended up leaving school after completing my grade three. My parents agreed that I go work for another family in the neighbouring community, to take care of their livestock,” he said looking at a village across the valley.

Ramaleka tended the animals of the family he was working for, and was remunerated with cows at the end of his contract.

“When I returned home from tending animals, I joined one avid farmer here at Ha Selemo. He was popular for growing the best cereals - maize and sorghum. He also grew vegetables not far from here,” he recalled.

Ramaleka picked some of the best lessons from the farmer who accommodated him to learn and work alongside him: “I discovered as I was working with him that this was my talent. I became very successful as a farmer too. Then hunger became a thing of the past in my family,” he said.

Ramaleka’s father had not given up on finding a job again: “He finally found a job at the mines. It was from his salary that he bought most of the equipment we needed to form our own span of oxen for ploughing and planting our fields,” he explained

It was since that time that Ramaleka became popular in his neighbourhood for being a successful farmer.

It was around this time that Mokoatsi had a great harvest of quality pumpkin in one of his father’s fields: “The harvest was so great, I decided to give to the orphaned and vulnerable. They could not exhaust it. They left some which I ate with the animals,

The following year I harvested even better. From this I knew that it is God who has multiplied my produce because I had given to those who could not produce anything on their own,” his said with a firm face so as to ensure he was clearly understood.

It was following this that drought ensued around Ramaleka’s area, and he began harvesting a little. World Vision - Maphutseng Area program began helping farmers around Ramaleka’s community with irrigation equipment to draw water from well uphill from there the fields lie.

“All the people who received this assistance from World Vision in 2013 have since stopped growing anything from their fields. I am the only one remaining,

“World Vision took us for training and also visited farmers who were thriving to learn of methods they employ,” he said.

“Today I can confidently say I have benefited greatly from the assistance I received from World Vision. I have earn R17,000.00 from selling trees, with more in the field as you can see. My vegetable sales average R6, 300.00,”

 Ramaleka says he plans to buy school uniform and shoes for the orphaned and vulnerable at his former school: “If I was not able to complete my schooling when my parents were both still present, how much more those whose parents are late or unemployed.”