Victoria’s cooperative: A blueprint for empowering the deaf

While the triumph of Mia le Roux in the Miss SA beauty pageant has drawn attention to the hearing-impaired, there are many others in the deaf community struggling to make their way in life.

That is why the example being set by Matebogo Victoria, leader of the Voice Out Deaf Cooperative, is so important.

She and the other hearing-impaired people who are part of the project operate from the Bekkersdal Agripark in Randfontein and have had to battle against many things, of which community ignorance and bias is only a small part.

Victoria started the cooperative after noticing how few opportunities there were for deaf people and those with other disabilities.

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There is also a lack of information easily accessible for deaf people about opportunities – something she works to improve by gathering material and disseminating it.

Member in the cooperative are learning new skills in farming and say they are now able to grow produce which they can sell to feed their families.

It’s a small project, but it is working and should be a lesson for government that a myriad enterprises like this, rather than grandiose plans for smart cities and high-speed rail links, are the way to lift most people out of poverty.