Big Issue rewards top vendor

STREET vendor and mother of four Elfrieda Hochobes has won this year’s Big Issue and First National Bank (FNB) Vendor of the Year competition for the colourful beaded accessories she designs.

Her prize was a cheque for N$1 000 from FNB. The competition’s objective is to encourage innovation.Hochobes was only able to attend school up to Grade five.She came a Big Issue vendor in 2002, selling the magazine for about four months until landing a job as domestic with someone who regularly bought the magazine from her.A fulltime job made life much easier for her, but things took a turn for the worse when the family she was working for had to move to Walvis Bay.Hochobes returned the Big Issue and she now cleans their depot in Bahnhof Street.”I have to work hard to provide for my family.It is I who brought my children into the world so one cannot just throw them away.My children are the ones who teach me how to be in the world,” she said.The Big Issue Namibia publishes a general interest magazine that is sold by a vendor force of unemployed, homeless and socially excluded adults.The competition’s objective is to encourage innovation.Hochobes was only able to attend school up to Grade five.She came a Big Issue vendor in 2002, selling the magazine for about four months until landing a job as domestic with someone who regularly bought the magazine from her.A fulltime job made life much easier for her, but things took a turn for the worse when the family she was working for had to move to Walvis Bay.Hochobes returned the Big Issue and she now cleans their depot in Bahnhof Street.”I have to work hard to provide for my family.It is I who brought my children into the world so one cannot just throw them away.My children are the ones who teach me how to be in the world,” she said.The Big Issue Namibia publishes a general interest magazine that is sold by a vendor force of unemployed, homeless and socially excluded adults.