VERUA KAVEZERILIFE is all about making choices,hopefully the right ones. Unfortunately, I have made many wrong choices for which I had to pay dearly.
For many years, I was chasing drugs, alcohol and parties and eventually I ended up mentally unstable, a threat to myself and society. I was diagnosed with bipolar disorder, which is also a mental condition.
I was arrested and jailed for five years for malicious damage to property, arson and assault by threat against my own sister.
When I entered the prison doors in June 2008 at the age of 31 years, I didn’t see how I could possibly survive five grueling years in what I believed to be hell.
I decided that I needed to do something positive and change the person I had become. With the help of counsellors, psychiatrists, social workers, fellow inmates and friends, I used the time to rehabilitate and become mentally healthy again.
Aged 36, I left prison in November 2013, full of hope towards a positive and bright future. Circumstances saw me in rural Oniihandi in Oniipa. This was a huge change after spending years in big cities – Stassfurt (a city in Germany), Windhoek, Cape Town and Manchester.
I was aware that reintegrating into society would not be an easy feat, but I was determined to prove that I could make it. The prospect of living with my aunt who is a pensioner and being financially dependent on her was hard for me to accept.
To make matters worse, like many other households in the northern parts of Namibia our household was dependent on drought relief and food aid from government and The Red Cross.
Once a month, I would go to the village headmen to pick up our ration of a bag of maize meal and a tin of fish and each day around lunch I would walk to the Red Cross soup kitchen to pick up a free meal for my aunt and myself.
Having to depend on handouts for survival made me feel ashamed and had a negative effect on my self-esteem. However, these circumstances motivated me to find means to feed myself and to earn some kind of income to lighten the burden on my aunt.
Looking for employment was out of question. I wasn’t ready to face the job market and was insecure on how it would receive me given my recent past. I wanted to become an entrepreneur and do something I was passionate about to help me maintain my mental, spiritual and physical well-being.
I decided to start a vegetable garden project with a few fruit trees for shade. I did some research on vegetable growing at the Auala Community Library. Adding my experience in growing vegetables during my rehabilitation period, I had sufficient basic knowledge to effectively start with a garden project.
The advantage of starting a fruit and a vegetable garden is that the initial costs are relatively low. What I basically needed was a fence to keep out cows, goats and chicken, basic equipment i.e. a spade, a hoe, a rake, a garden hose and shade nets, vegetable seeds and fruit trees for sowing, fertilisers, pest control and a constant supply of water.
Initially, I started growing a few vegetables within the confines of our yard for a sort of trial period, to supply our household with fresh vegetables and to help me generate some money.
In June 2014 after my successful trial period of six months, I was able to buy the basic equipment to start my project. My aunt was very happy to see me trying to make a living and agreed to give me a piece of land for my garden.
First, I cleared weeds and grass using a hoe, spade and rake. The most physically straining work was to cultivate the land by digging and amending the soil composition. The soil in our area is very clayey. I had to mix it with lots of sand, manure and compost to improve its texture and fertility. It took approximately two-and-a-half months to prepare the planting area. After putting up the fence with the help of a cousin, I was ready to start sowing my first seeds and planting my first fruit trees.
Now eight months later, I am standing in front of my garden with a profound sense of pride as I look at what I have achieved through my hard labour and hours of sweat.
I am growing large spinach but also maize, beans, carrots, onions, and sweet potatoes, which I sell to the local community in Oniipa and in Ondangwa.
I experiment with various other vegetables, fruits and herbs such as cucumbers, strawberries, sweet rocket, jalapeno peppers, dill and radish, which I use for household consumption with plans to sell commercially in the future.
So far I have planted fruit trees such as guava, lemon, orange, granadilla, mango, apple and banana but it will take at least another two to three years before they start bearing their first fruits.
Running my vegetable garden in an environmentally friendly manner is very important to me and helps reduce the cost of maintaining it, which is why I continually educate myself on ways to achieve that.
Saving water is the most crucial part. I do this by mulching, using shade nets and watering in the late afternoon to minimise water evaporation.
To ensure my vegetables are organic, I asked my uncle who keeps a small herd of cattle to supply me with free manure and with our own chicken manure and compost I have organic fertiliser.
For pest control, I use environmentally friendly home remedies instead of using chemicals, which are harmful in many ways including killing beneficial insects like praying mantis and ladybirds. Another effective method I use as a biological control against pest is crop rotation.
My garden project is the joy in my life and all my energy goes into making it a success, which means that I generally work six days a week and more if required. It takes a lot of discipline and self-motivation to get up and work tirelessly even on the days I feel like taking it easy.
Some of the challenges I face are the poor soil quality, extreme heat in summer months, and disruption in water supply.
I have officially registered my garden project as ‘Kavezeri Investments cc’. It is at its humble beginning, but I am confident that I will turn it into a profitable enterprise in the near future.
At the moment I distribute my vegetables two times a week by delivering them to my customers at their homes or workplace by means of taxi or by foot in Oniipa and Ondangwa. I pride myself in selling fresh, affordable and organic produce, so to keep the vegetables fresh and protect them from the heat I store them in thermal bags and a cooler box.
My plan for the future is to turn my garden project into a small business, make it more profitable and set up a shop where I can sell and deliver my products from.
