By Robert Smith | Opportunity International
Eleven of Opportunity South Africa’s Pietermaritzburg branch clients are members of the Gcumisa Cooperative, six men and five women. The Gcumisa Cooperative is located in a rural community outside the small town of Wartburg. The main crop of this area is sugarcane and most of the land is leased out to growers by the village chiefs. Zulu is the language spoken in this community where families live in traditional round huts without the benefit of running water.
The Gcumisa Cooperative farmers grow potatoes and maize. Thanks to your generosity, since receiving their first loan of $300 each, have increased their harvest enough to open a produce stall in the busy Durban marketplace.
Nora, (left) the group’s chairlady, grows maize; her neighbor Norgusa (blue dress) is her friend and a farmer as well. The cooperative farms 60 hectares between them. Each member also plants a plot to provide food for their families. Today, the group is on their fourth loan which they used to purchase high quality seed and fertilizer. The members are each turning a profit and have agreed to use future loans to purchase a tractor and fund an irrigation system so they can increase their production.
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