Khan Sustains Family Thanks to Gardening Project
Aproperty fire and losing a job as a result of the COVID-19 crisis has enabled Manauwar Khan to channel his time to seek other means to provide for his family.
Mr Khan was joining the chorus of Fijians who were spending more energy in their compound creating a food haven for their families.
The 28-year-old, Fiji National University graduate in Web Development and IT networking, works for Rosie Holidays as an eCommerce manager looking after the websites, online development and mobile apps since 2016.
On March 22, a late night fire completely destroyed their property and other businesses in Nadi Town. It was also at the time when Lautoka was just recently declared a confined area after the country’s COVID-19 case was announced.
But weeks before that, as the world began to realise the magnitude of this crisis, the tourism industry as well as Fiji’s was hit. Hence, Mr Khan and thousands more in the tourism industry were sent on unpaid leave.
Mr Khan has been gardening for about six weeks now and already, his project has been bearing fruits.
He has planted tomatoes, coriander, spring onion, lettuce, spinach, white reddish, eggplant, cabbage, chili, mustard leaves, fenugreek leaves, mint, capsicum, bean and okra in his property on Fantasy Island, Nadi.
“I no longer have a fulltime job and God knows what lies ahead for our future,” he said.
“It is totally understandable as to why the company had to send their staff on unpaid leave. I hope and pray that the situation gets better soon and I look forward to starting my full time job again at Rosie.
“We as a family decided to use this opportunity for some backyard gardening.
“We also do fishing and crab catching from our backyard as we have a freshwater stream beside our house.
“This will be beneficial for us because we will have fresh produce for our food on the table and also we can avoid visiting the crowded vegetable market during this time of COVID-19.”
He mostly does gardening with his wife but also accompanied by other family members as they also have interest in gardening.
He also studied Agriculture back in High School so that has become very handy.