TSHANDAMA – Although the scourge of unemployment is a global concern, six unemployed men defied all odds and organized themselves to start a new and fruitful life in wood carving.

Nkhumbuleni Mudau, Shonisani Siobo, Solomon Begwa, Joseph Malindi, Peter Mudau and Frans Netshithuthuni call themselves Tshandama Freedom Arts. None of them has formal woodcarving training, but they use their inborn talents to produce beautiful sculptures, which they sell next to a busy public road at Tshandama – Makhithani, outside Tshilamba.

Their sculptures range from wooden drums, walking sticks, spherical calabashes, spoons and other wooden decorative ornaments. Their works were also on display at the annual Rand Easter Show lately.

Nkhumbuleni Mudau (45) said his life has totally changed since he teamed up with his five friends in the wood-carving initiative five years ago. He said he had been unemployed for many years and it was very difficult for him to support his family. He encourages other unemployed members of the community to organise themselves and start their own initiatives that will generate some funds.

He told Mirror: “It is better than not doing anything at all, because I can now support my wife, Gladys, and seven kids. All my kids are still at school and they solely depend on the income from the sculpting initia-tive. Although we sometimes went for weeks without any customers, our hard labour has started bearing fruits because, at the end of the day, one can at least take something home.”

Mudau said they risk their lives by going to the dense bushes to cut special wood for their sculptures. “We use special trees like Muulurwi and Musinde to produce quality sculptures. We make sure that our customers are getting life-time sculptures and that is why we use very strong wood. We do not have any machinery but we use axes, chisels and hammers to make our sculptures. We do not allow the shortage of working material to have a negative impact on our duties. We put our poor financial backgrounds aside and work hard to accomplish our dreams.”

Mudau added that their sculptures start from R20 to R5 000, depending on the size desired by customers. He said most of their customers are tourists who buy their products at their informal market when going to Luphephe or Tshipise for holidays. “Tourists buy a lot of our stuff and they also come back for more. We need people who can assist us to market our products even outside the borders of our country.”

Another member of the project, Solomon Begwa, said things have changed for good since he engaged himself in woodcarving. “This initiative has changed our lives and I advise people to stop complaining about lack of jobs, but instead, they must to something to earn a living.”