My name is Shadreck Ndlovu, I live in Kgatleng, Mochudi, Boseja south with my wife and children. We live a simple life like many people here though my wife and I are blind, and none of our children have any disabilities, so they are away working.
My wife and I make a living through our skills, which we learnt these skills in 1984 at a school for the blind called Pudulogong Rehabilitation center for the blind, a center which focuses on teaching the blind daily living skills so they can be independent. We learnt skills like basket weaving, baking, poultry and horticulture. We make a living through weaving baskets and chairs; we also repair broken chairs and stretchers. Having a disability is that you are limited in the job market which is why I decided to make a living through crafts, we can’t all be absorbed by the job market.
The palm leave tree is found in the Bobirwa side of Botswana, about 510kms from Kgatleng. We travel there to buy the raw material, we hire transportation to take us there, hire people to cut the palm leaves for us and we come back to prepare the material to make our products. When making stretcher beds we use material used for roofing which we get from a shop in Gaborone, but mostly we repair them than manufacturing them. With the chairs, we buy metal and hire a welder to make a frame for us so we can weave on the metal frame. I enjoy making chairs more because I get to make those more, but if a customer comes to me for repairs I also do that.
We use raw material found in nature, though not found in Kgatleng, we go where it grows naturally where the indigenous people in that area use it for many things like weaving and roofing their houses. The good thing about this tree is that it’s a perennial tree, its always there throughput the year because it prefers wet lands, which is why its found where there is a lot of water along river banks. The products I make, especially the chairs can be used mostly in lodges because they look beautiful, but you can use them in your home in the shade.
We face a lot of challenges in this business especially when you are visually impaired, you need someone to transport you around, for instance when there are exhibitions happening, you’d need someone to take you there and if that person is not there then you end up losing out on marketing your products and losing business. The other challenge is collecting the raw material because we get the materials from far, petrol is expensive and having to hire a car is expensive too, at times you find that you would have spent more on getting the material than the profit you make, however we are being supported by the council as they provide transportation for us to go for free all we have to do is pay for my meals and the raw material. Other times when you don’t have money to buy a meal for yourself you end up going on an unintentional fasting period, but we don’t complain and appreciate the support we get because we try to better our lives.
