Vision and staying power are guarantees for future success
We visited the inspirational Sara Pandle in May 2016 and were so impressed by her determined self-improvement and dedication to being of service to others and her goal to become a nurse that we asked to meet again, almost two years later.
“I’m helping people now with their doctor’s letters”, she tells me. Let’s take a moment to measure how far Pandle has come.
“From about the year 2000 at Ouplaas farm in the Witzenberg Valley which grows Tru-Cape apples and pears I developed my pruning skill and become familiar with dealing with late developing branches. I found myself drawn to the training centres and community development as I knew that I wanted to work with the community. Actually, my dream was always to become a nurse but as I had to go out to work and help support my family at a young age, I wasn’t able to complete my schooling as a teenager living in Calvinia.
“Currently I am principal of the farm creche at Ouplaas and responsible for looking after about 20 children. I work on creating activities and educational programmes for them. I also work to raise funds for the creche by putting on community events. During harvest I still work as a senior Quality Controller on the farm and, because of my Level Three First Aid qualifications, I’m also the person that our workers come to with problems, ” she says.
Calla du Toit, a third generation grower at Ouplaas and still in the business with his father Joshua and wife Orla, says that what makes Sara’s story so inspirational is that she is entirely self-motivated: “Sara’s decisions and determination to improve herself are hers alone even though her committed relationship with God helps guide her in the right direction. Not only does she ask for what she needs but she also finds a way to make it happen – from improving her ability to communicate by learning to speak English and IsiXhosa to raising the money she needed to complete the First Aid courses herself.”
Pandle explains: “I understand people’s problems as I’ve faced most of them myself. I know what it is like to be under pressure. I’ve been depressed in the past and then Johnson, my husband, has really helped me. I’ve made peace with it that this is my work and my calling.”
She says her typical day begins at the creche at 06.15 before opening the Quality Control rooms at 07.30 where she checks that everything is ready for the day’s harvest. When she isn’t at the creche or in the QC room, she is helping farm workers purchase electricity tokens and assists with letters from the doctors and what steps need to be taken next. “For the moment this is about as near as I am to my dream of being a nurse”, she says and mentions that she needed to get eye glasses before qualifying for a public driving permit license with which she is still in progress.
She says she gets home to her husband and children at about 18h15. “It is then when my job as a mother, wife and housewife starts.” There may be a community meeting as she is one of the community representatives and before getting to bed at around 22h40, she says “I bake bread.”
Pandle is currently busy arranging a community visit to the aquarium as well as a sports day.
Tru-Cape Fruit Marketing managing director Roelf Pienaar says that Pandle’s story serves as inspirational proof that vision and staying power are guarantees for future success and is a good example of the many positive stories coming from Tru-Cape growers.
