Real Talk with Fifz

Rising from poverty!!!!!!

Dr Emmanuel Mohlapi 

What comes to mind when one speaks of poverty? Is it sleeping without blankets or going to bed on an empty stomach? Is it having no shoes or clothes to wear? Some might relate with these questions while others might have never experienced going days without food.

We all have our struggles and problems that we fight on a daily basis for a better future. And while there are different kinds of poverty we need to break the chains of self-pity and know that the world owe us nothing!!!

The first poverty and the most common of them is when we find ourselves unprivileged to basic needs because our parents cannot afford but they work for, at least, two jobs to fend for our needs and take us to school. It is at this stage where we learn the sacrifices and desperation for a better future for us.

The second poverty we find is an inherited and generational poverty. That one poverty where an individual believe that just because their grandparents and/or parents worked as, for example, cleaner or gardener then it means they are destined for the same profession. That is what they know, how they were raised and what they are comfortable with.

Lastly, we have poverty of the mind, these are the lazy thinkers that believes that anything and everything will fall on their lap, they believe that the world owes them and they are choosy and ungrateful. It does not make sense when a mother would say that her child only survives by SASSA funds only, that is madness on another level. When a person that does not want to improve their situation based on their pride, clearly has not seen poverty.

Dr Emmanuel Mohlapi, our very own Occupational Therapist in Mokopane has seen all corners of poverty. Just last week we had a meeting and the things we discussed that particular day made me see life in a different light. As I sat with my business partner thinking that we will be discussing business as usual, Dr Emmanuel Mohlapi told us a story about how he got where he is today. “It was not easy", he said, "having to survive on a thousand rand" because that is what his mother earned- they needed cloths, food and fees to be paid.

"I thought to myself that it is impossible to survive on that amount but somehow they made it work," he explained how all his siblings including himself fought to go to varsity. He particularly had to raise funds to get a taxi to Pretoria not having a clue how he will survive for accommodation, textbooks, food and transport.

Everything seemed like an obstacle and challenge more especially when Dr Mohlapi further explained that they used cooking oil as body lotion. They made use of anything and everything to survive.

I could not help but cry as I looked at him inspire us with his story. He did not pity himself neither did his siblings, they helped each other get by, they took poverty and turned it into a motivation, he broke out of the bondages of poverty to become a doctor. He believed in his name Emmanuel meant, “God is with us” he was then referred as Man of God by those close to him.

He had a goal and ambition though his mother could only send him R 800 every month to pay rent, buy food and survive only drove him further to be one that build his mother a big house in the rural areas just by his first job.

He lived on just pap and cabbage not because that was his favourite meal but because that is what he could afford. In the morning he will make porridge and for supper, prepare pap and cabbage.

Today, standing beside me is a certified and qualified Occupational Therapist married to a humble and most ravishing woman. The two are blessed with two daughters. "Our current situation is not our final destination." I stand fully inspired by Dr Mohlapi’s story and bravery. His journey will yet be one of success!