Teacher Musa wins an award from the TAVI project in Eswatini for promoting traditional African vegetables

 When his name was announced the overall Gold award winner, Musa could not believe his ears, he waited for the second time to hear his name being called and this time he jumped up in joy and walked up to the stage to collect his award.

Musa Maseko, an agriculture subject teacher at eNhlanhleni Methodist primary School is full of passion & love for traditional African vegetables. His loves for traditional vegetables production is evident through the amazing school garden he is responsible and tends to. His love for farming started during his early childhood and college made it easier for him when Agriculture was part of the subjects he could pursue for his Diploma in Teaching. He hit the ground running when he initiated a vegetable garden when immediately after completion of his studies in his first school. His school was soon selected as those that that would pilot the integration of traditional African vegetables within the school feeding programme in eSwatini. And this is when his love and passion for the traditional vegetables begun, he wanted to know more about them and their nutritional value and in this regard, he got so close to the TAVI project team so that he learns as much as possible about these vegetables. He was trained together with many other teachers in the cultivation of traditional African vegetables and was provided regular support and mentoring by the team.

Once the school garden was up and flourishing, Mr Maseko started inviting the parents of the learners to learn more about these vegetables. He offered to help them start up their home gardens too, soon the entire community was full of traditional vegetables gardens, each home had a garden. The entire community joined in and spread the word about the nutritional value of these vegetables and how they never go to bed hungry anymore. Such an act by the teacher was then identified by an American funded foundation called MaryDee Sibuko Foundation which has the mandate to improve the quality of life for women and girls by empowering women entrepreneurs, through agroecology, information communication technology and environmental science enterprises that guarantee financial stability, while raising responsible responsive boys in a conducive healthy environment. This foundation was impressed about Mr Maseko’s contribution towards the livelihoods and food security in his community. In November 2024, Mr Maseko was awarded the award in a glittering awards ceremony in Eswatini. This award was for his was for his outstanding dedication, resilience and valuable contribution in creating a positive social impact & taking action towards attaining Sustainable Development Goals. He aspires to part of the bigger efforts of fighting hunger and poverty in eSwatini. Musa believes that traditional African vegetables can be part of the interventions that eSwatini can adopt and use to attain the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG’s) to achieve Zero Hunger and fight poverty.

“The learners love the traditional vegetables so much, they call me Sir traditional vegetables because I am always encouraging them about them and that at home, they all should have gardens with traditional vegetables”, and I am dedicating this Gold Award to the World Vegetable Center as they are an organisation that reignited the fire and passion, I have for vegetables production and consumption. My dream is to further my studies and attain a Masters degree in Agroecology, Maseko shared.

TAVI is funded by the Ministry of Agriculture and Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Taiwan. It is implemented by the World Vegetable Center, in partnership with the Ministry of Agriculture and Ministry of Education and Training, Eswatini and the National Plant Genetic Resources Center, Tanzania.

Story By: Nontobeko Mbuyane, Communications Officer, WorldVeg Center Eswatini

TAVI is funded by the Misnistry of Agriculture and Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Taiwan. It is implemented by the World Vegetable Center, in partnership with the Ministry of Agriculture and Ministry of Education and Training, Eswatini; the University of Abomey-Calavi, Benin; the national Plant Genetic Resources Center, Tanzania; and the national Center for Applied Research on Rural Development (FOFIFA) and University of Antananarivo, Madagascar.