Hear the Voices Live from the Field: Youth Employment for Rural Transformation

The most powerful way to amplify somebody’s voice is to let them speak for themselves. These stories are live from the field, written in the words of the beneficiaries.

Meet Jebbes: Tsumkwe Project Coordinator

My name is Gerhard Jebbes a project coordinator for the Tsumkwe Community-based integrated food systems project. 

The project started on 18 July 2021. The idea of the project was to help sick and malnourished patients at the community clinic to have access to free food so they can take their medicine. And for other community members to come and shop instead of driving far to the closest town Grootfontein (298KM) to buy fruits and vegetables specifically onions, beetroot, cabbage, spinach, and eggs.

The project has been a hope for creating employment opportunities for young people.

As the project coordinator, I have 6 youthful boys working on the project. Three (3) garden boys are planting and watering, one (1) boy is managing the chicken coup and I have two (2) volunteers who are unpaid. The two volunteers I am fighting for them to get paid.  I am doing all I can. Talking to everyone I know especially the director and the agricultural technical adviser.

The boys come to work every single day from 8 am to 5 pm. We give them food from the leftovers of the food cooked for the patients in the Tsumkwe clinic if they don’t have anything, but they need to also get paid.

There has also been a positive ripple effect in the community. We donated the leftover seeds of cabbage, spinach, and carrots after the last harvest to the community members and gave them instructions on planting. We estimate that there have been 4 to 5 backyard gardens started because of this initiative.

As the time passes and the project grows, I hope we can supply the whole of Tsumkwe and benefit a lot more people and bring more jobs for increasing youth employment rates. I am going to fight for this project not to die and to bring more examples of youth who transformed their community with their bare hands.

Sometimes I get angry and annoyed, and I want to give up. But my team tells me ‘’no’’. They tell me ‘’let’s continue working together; if you give up then what about us?

This project must change lives and bring lots of youth work opportunities. If this project reaches its full potential, it is estimated that 400-500 jobs will be created.

So, I will keep fighting on my part, and I will keep praying to God.

Meet Kudo: Tsumkwe Chicken Coup Manager

My name is Kudo. I just completed Grade 12. I was brought into the project by Jebbes, the project coordinator. I took a class on agriculture in school and my dream was to work with chicken. I told Jebbes if there is a place on your project please remember me, and when there was a place, he remembered.

During the first phase of the project 10 people were trained on the project as volunteers and I was one of them. The aim of the project is not to keep people working as volunteers. But it was a start. I learned how to work and more specifically how to deal with chicken.

"Volunteering is so hard. If you are volunteering and you do not have heart or if you have a short heart, you might quit or you might steal money, but I had the heart. I couldn’t even go to sleep if I knew the chicken were starving. I sacrificed my income because if I didn’t the chicken would not have someone to take care of them and they would not have food." - Kudo

We were two volunteers assigned to the chicken coup. So, to make ends meet we used to alternate. I used to volunteer 2 weeks a month, and he volunteered the other 2 weeks. During the weeks when I wasn’t volunteering, I would hustle for some tenders such as plumbing to pay for my accommodation and water and electric bills.

It did not feel good not getting paid. Do you know how it feels when others are being paid and you are not? When your neighbour has something, and you do not? Even with some of my co-workers getting paid and me being a volunteer, I advised them to save a portion of their money and to have a little business such as selling sweets to make it to the end of the month.

Because even if you get paid a small income at the end of the month you might starve if you don’t have another source of money.

I got my first salary after volunteering for 6 months. I make N$1500 a month (US$ 86) now but my aim is to make this project bigger and grow within the project. In Tsumkwe we never used to have such projects. People used to suffer to buy vegetables and eggs from the nearest town Grootfontein and now our demand is exceeding our supply especially for the eggs.

I love working to take care of the chicken. With time my dream is that this project benefits a lot of people like me through employing them. I also dream that Tsumkwe has a large market for eggs where people can buy.