They have abandoned their previous economic activities, which include smallholder agriculture and livestock keeping and embraced gold mining in the hope of turning around their fortunes. Their hopes are still alive as they believe their efforts will finally meet a Good Samaritan who will buy their gold at a good price but unfortunately several years on, they have not recouped their investment. More than ten years, majority are still languishing in poverty. Most local miners are not able to support their children acquire education as well as feed and clothe decently. Women lead the group in the gold search. Armed with rudimentary items such as a pickaxe, spade and metal basins, they enter Kenya's River Muruny to mine the precious commodity. They are often accompanied by their children, mostly aged below ten, who carry for them food, often, a mixture of maize and beans. The children cannot be in school because they look after their younger siblings as their mothers bend their backs shaking the heavy basin metals searching for gold. Standing in the middle of River Muruny Chepurayi Nancy, 40, looks frustrated. The single mother of four scoops sand and stones from the bottom of the shallow waters with a basin and searches for gold in the container (basin) with her bare hands.
Chepurayi Nancy, 40, looks frustrated. The single mother of four scoops sand and stones from the bottom of the shallow waters with a basin and searches for gold in the container (basin) with her bare hands.
"This is a business of hope. You keep working hoping to find gold at some point. It is not an easy venture,” she says.
“It is a business of luck for artisan’s world over. You can strike gold and become a billionaire in a minute. It is that hope that keeps us going every other day,” Henry Kolipus, 66, says. "We are roughed up in poverty despite us searching gold for years. The women also depend on gold to educate, feed and clothe their families,” He ventured into the gold searching business when he was a teenager, unfortunately he is still languishing in poverty. He is even struggling to keep his two children who are in secondary in school.
https://www.standardmedia.co.ke/article/2001257931/gold-searchers-in-west-pokot-county-still-languishing-in-poverty
Chepurayi Nancy, 40, looks frustrated. The single mother of four scoops sand and stones from the bottom of the shallow waters with a basin and searches for gold in the container (basin) with her bare hands.
"This is a business of hope. You keep working hoping to find gold at some point. It is not an easy venture,” she says.
“It is a business of luck for artisan’s world over. You can strike gold and become a billionaire in a minute. It is that hope that keeps us going every other day,” Henry Kolipus, 66, says. "We are roughed up in poverty despite us searching gold for years. The women also depend on gold to educate, feed and clothe their families,” He ventured into the gold searching business when he was a teenager, unfortunately he is still languishing in poverty. He is even struggling to keep his two children who are in secondary in school.
https://www.standardmedia.co.ke/article/2001257931/gold-searchers-in-west-pokot-county-still-languishing-in-poverty
No comments:
Post a Comment