Online Reporter
Dorcus Mhungu, Sunday News Correspondent
She spotted me alighting from a kombi from Harare, and she wheeled her wheelchair with so much vigour, I thought she was going to lose control and topple over.
Tears rolled down my cheeks as I ran towards her. I leaned lower to get into her open arms welcome embrace, and she held me tightly like we had met before. We were meeting for the first time in flesh. Everton Elvis’s online mushroom farming online lessons had become popular.
I had landed on his page while looking for an online mushroom refresher course to restart button mushroom farming. I shed a tear and quickly wiped it with the back of my hand. Our excitement was intense as I disentangled myself from Makota’s affectionate welcome embrace.
The woman I had made friends with telephonically was now clutching me in a hearty welcome embrace for the first time.
“Welcome home, my friend,” she said, with tangible genueity, shining in her eyes. I wheeled her back to her home fighting back tears that had welled up in my eyes. I was inspired by Makota’s determination to utilise the land around her homestead profitably.
The irony in Makota’s story is a wheelchair bound woman who is growing and selling her produce to young and old able-bodied men and women in her neighbourhood in Norton.
Mr Everton Elvis, a mushroom farmer and online trainer from Dangamvura high density in Mutare, had told me about Makota’s determination during an interview about his online mushroom training. I had asked him for a female mushroom farmer from his trained growers pool to profile. He gave me Makota’s contact number. Elvis had told me that Makota’s project was an inspiration because she was a disabled woman in a wheelchair.
It was her condition and determination that made me embark on the long journey to Norton and hear her story. Makota, also popularly known as Mai Zviko, was involved in a serious road traffic accident, which left her paralysed from the waist downwards. She did not only lose her ability to walk but also the love of her life and the father of her children because of her injury.
It is her determination to score her economic goals of feeding people in her hood that amazed me. As I wheeled her back to her courtyard to capture her mushroom farming project story, l wished youngsters I saw in her neighbourhood would follow her footsteps.
“After becoming disabled and accepting my lameness, I made a conviction to rise above my challenges because disability does not mean inability,” Makota said with intense conviction in her voice.
” But before doing Everton’s online mushroom training, I had done another training.
I later heard about Pastor Everton Elvis’s online mushroom training classes, and I contacted him,” Makota said. “After completing the online mushroom cultivation course, I built the pole and grass thatched growing houses you see and started growing the Oyster mushrooms,” she said with confidence and a triumphant smile.
She also sells eggs from commercial egg layers chickens as well as the indigenous “road runner chickens.” Road runner is a nickname attached to the indigenous chickens because they run fast from predators and people if they sense danger from predators.
“I am a beneficiary of the A1 land reform programme, and I also have this traditional land where we grow maize and other crops for food,” Makota said, emphasising the need by all land owners to utilise the allocated land productively.
She thanked the Government of Zimbabwe for introducing the land reform programme she is benefiting from.
“I have started small here but have big plans for the future if I could get startup capital.
“We must utilise the land to contribute towards scoring food sufficiency goals set by the Government, to feed the people of Zimbabwe and export to other countries,” Makota said with the vigour and conviction of an able bodied person.
She sells her mushrooms to people in her area, and the demand is encouraging.
“I wish i could get enough money to build a proper mushroom building. The demand for the product is good,” Makota said confidently.
