Early Friday morning, the abundance of colour caught the eye when passing the rose tunnels of the Parys Flower Project in Allenby Street. The four beneficiaries of the project, Florence Malebo, John Letsobe, Thabo Modise and Neo Malebo, were hard at work, packing the 1 000 roses they deliver on contract every week.
For the first time since the start of the project in 2017, it has been blooming since December 2020. Not only because the Department of Agriculture has given these beneficiaries a financial boost, but because of caring people like Jeane and Kieran Cameron. They have been offering their help since the lockdown. The mother and daughter drove and saw the damaged tunnels. They have since all been fixed and a third tunnel added to the project.
For Jeane and Kieran, the tunnels are a weekly stop to support, physically help and teach the beneficiaries how to care for the roses.
They bring their gardening knowledge and passion week after week.
When they are done working in the tunnels and inspiring those they leave behind, they create a market by taking roses to sell. And what a difference they have made!
They have not been paid a single cent, nor taken one rose for free, but what these women have invested here – just because they care – has achieved more than a thousand words can express.
The beneficiaries have now planted spinach in the new veggie tunnel that was put up earlier this year.
The spinach will be harvested this week.
Today, despite numerous setbacks, the Parys Flower Project tells a story of compassion, of people reaching out purely for the love of flowers and making a difference in others’ lives.
These are people who have invested their time, not only to guide but help in any way they can.
They are people like Rykie Schaller and others who taught the beneficiaries how to prune and fertilise from the start.
People like the contractor Storc CC, who lent a helping hand in February, replacing the stolen solar panels at no cost when crime had taken the project beneficiaries right back to square one. Six of the solar panels were stolen, only days after they had been installed.
Remember – the roses and spinach
are sold to the public at the tunnels between 07:00 and 15:00 on weekdays.
