Grannies eke a living out of beading
Lesedi Mkhutshwa | Sunday June 19, 2022 06:00
Therefore, a 34-year-old woman of Tsamaya village Nanzy Chaitezvi has taught grandmas in her area the craft skill of ornamentation, which has in turn become their source of sustenance.
The grannies are now able to put food on the table while bringing back the fun to their otherwise stodgy lifestyle. Through the Mosadi Letlotlo Society, which was formed in 2019, Chaitezvi brought together 13 old women in Tsamaya village to train them on enhancing their creativity on bead bag making. Driven by their financial crisis and boredom, the self-driven oldies joined the movement without hesitation and took a leap of faith from the ambitious Chaitezvi to start their beading artistic journey.
According to the talented artist, she gathered the old women after she noticed that a lot of them are widows and bread winners at the same time and could use an extra cash to sustain their livelihood. Some of these women were left with their grandchildren and expected to raise them alone, she added. The Mosadi Letlotlo Society initiative was formed in order to curb such challenges, which usually result in psychological problems and health complications such as sugar diabetes and hypertension. When speaking about the initiative, Chaitezvi said she imports most of the beads and handbags from Zambia and Zimbabwe. “In most cases we use natural beading, which includes bones and shell embellishments or myriad stones by our suppliers. This material offers an array of natural materials to make beautiful bags.
Natural materials bring in intriguing stories and symbolism to the beaded bags by the grannies. The ideology behind the society was also to get them some leisure time as most of them were staying at home alone with their grandchildren," she said. According to the artist, decorating using beads on handbags is associated with a variety of attributes that are fun to discover and share, which will keep the grannies busy from their boring lifestyle. Chaitezvi stated that they make creative bags, which suit the 21st century fashion and style but also embrace culture at the same time. She said they usually meet on Fridays to manufacture bags ready for the market.
So far, she said they have customers from across the country that purchase and are already receiving orders from as far as Zimbabwe courtesy of their suppliers. She stated that bead bag making is becoming profitable for the grannies as they are considering starting up a business, which would empower more oldies in their society so that they can boost their old age pension. Chaitezvi said the bead bag making craft by the grannies is proof that age does not stop anyone from developing their artist skills. She is touched by the fact that all the old women just took a leap of faith on her and she managed to change their lives for the better.