Mme Maphello Moso
[mme – a respectful way to address an older woman in Sesotho, the official language of Lesotho]
Meet our Harvesters
Mme Maphello Moso (59) is one of nearly 3 500 harvesters, mostly female, who picks our rosehip by hand every season. She has been part of the harvesting team for just over 3 years now.
Mme Maphello lives in Masemouse village in the Maluti Mountains with her son and his two children. She has been providing for the family since her husband died in 1993 on the gold mines in South Africa. To her, having her grandchildren around for most of the day, is the best thing she could have asked for.
A few years ago, her much older best friend, mme Mamatsoso Lephosa, introduced mme Maphello to rosehip. Together they tend their vegetable gardens and laugh and share their stories as often as they can.
One of mme Masellone’s favourite memories is her mother’s bedtime stories. And these are the same ones that she is now telling her own grandchildren.
How rosehip is changing lives
Since mme Maphello became a part of the Rosehip family, she has seen to it that her son and his children get a good education and that they have enough to eat. By selling some of her sheep inbetween harvest times, she has managed to look after her family in a way that would have made her mother proud.
Through harvesting rosehip, mme Maphello has managed to enlarge her children’s inheritance, providing not only for the here and now, but also for the future.
