Omaruru – While many senior citizens sit idle awaiting government grants and other handouts, 74-year-old Theofilia Amarwa wakes up every morning to collect grass which she sells to support her family.
Amarwa lives in Hakahana, a poverty-stricken informal settlement in Omaruru, to where she only returns in the evening after a long day of cutting grass in the surrounding areas.
Amarwa, who originally hails from Oshikuku in Omusati Region, collects grass from the Canon River, filling them up in 50-kilogramme bags as animal fodder. One bag is sold for N$40.
The elderly lady said she saw a slot in selling grass to farmers in the area because of the devastating drought that has been affecting the region following poor rains this year.
According to her, the money she gets from the sale of grass she uses to support her 16 grandchildren who attend school.
“Although I am very happy with our government for increasing the pension grant to N$1 000, this is still not enough to support my extended family,” she said.
Amarwa says on a good day she will walk home with N$500.
She said with the help of her daughters, Roswindis Niingo and Anna Johannes, their target is to fill up 20 bags a day which they then sell for N$800.
Apart from selling bags of grass, Amarwa also sells the Acacia erioloba which grows from the camelthorn tree.
She said each bag costs N$25 and is currently in demand as farmers are fighting a devastating drought.
Amarwa urged unemployed youth to stop complaining but to rather create jobs for themselves.
“I grew up in a world where one needed to support oneself but these days I am hearing young people complaining about government this, government that,” she said.
She said that with the sale of grass and Acacia erioloba she has managed to create a decent income for herself and her grandchildren.
Eddy Storbeck, a game farmer in the area is a regular customer of Amarwa. “Because of the current drought we are dreadfully in need of grass and Acacia erioloba but the biggest challenge we have now is that we don’t have a lot of suppliers,” he said.
“I always buy the seeds but it is very difficult to find them now, as they are in high demand at the moment,” Storbeck added.
Commercial farmers said that they mix the grass and Acacia erioloba with lucerne.
by Kuzeeko Tjitemisa