Ottosdal – Food Security in Letsopa, a township in Ottosdal received a boost as MEC for Rural, Environment and Agricultural Development Manketsi Tlhape visited the area to plant and handover vegetable gardens to assist food insecure households.
The handover ceremony was held at Ottosdal on recently as part of the Provincial Commemoration of 16 days of Activism against Women and Children abuse.
The campaign seeks to raise awareness of the negative impact that violence and abuse have on women and children and get rid of a society of abuse permanently.
About 50 families have been identified to benefit from the garden project initiated by the department.
These families are dominated by older persons, child heads as well as those with mothers as heads.
MEC Tlhape acknowledged that the challenges including unemployment, poverty and gender inequality that exist in communities lead to violence thriving in many families.
She said the department’s efforts of creating gardens for families are a result of the observation that many families which experience violence and abuse are those that are poverty stricken.
Tlhape has urged all stakeholders to come together and adopt the 2014 theme which states: “Count me in- Together moving a non violent South Africa forward”.
Annah Phutieagae, a 77 year old recipient of vegetable garden jubilantly said she had always been waiting for a day when government will extend a hand to their needs.
Phutieagae stays with her grandchildren who will assist her to take care of her garden.
She said she appreciated that government had provided them with what they had tried to implement as a family but didn’t sustain because of lack of resources. Her garden will grow vegetables including tomatoes, onions, cabbage and beetroot.
Garden essential handed over to the families include wheelbarrows, spade forks, spades, and irrigation aids.
When delivering her keynote address on behalf of MEC for Social Development, Fenny Gaolaolwe, MEC Tlhape indicated that the engagement with the community of Ottosdal is meant to share information with them so that women and children abuse can be prevented.
“This is one of the social ills, so we need to work together and make sure that we eradicate this problem,” MEC said.
“As we are celebrating 20 years of freedom and 16 years since the Launch of 16 Days of Activism, MEC Tlhape said that communities owe it to themselves to identify milestones of fighting abuse against women and children.
“We know the perpetrators because they are staying amongst. Time has come for us to stop hiding them and help authorities to move them out of society,” She emphasised.
She indicated that women have endured violence for a long time and the success of the campaign entirely rests on individuals and collective actions to safeguard the communities from a visible cycle of abuse.
According to MEC Tlhape, Letsopa is one of the townships where cases of violence have been recorded at a high rate.
“We have had many previous leaders coming personally to Letsopa to demonstrate against the acts of violence. There was appoint where we buried a young woman who was brutally murdered,” she proclaimed.
This violence, she added: “leads to families being broken and a high number of households where women and children are left to fend for themselves.
The event which had drawn community members across the Province was honoured by many managers from government sector including the departments of Social Development, Rural Environment and Agricultural Development, Sassa, other government agencies as well local government representatives.
-TDN
Follow us on Twitter@Taung_DailyNews or @IceT_
