Vuyolwethu Zicina, known to everyone as Vuyo, leads a team of dedicated gardeners in the SI Permaculture garden, growing thousands of seedlings, from spinach and cabbage to indigenous plants and herbs, with a 95% success rate for her herb seedlings. Her passion is rooted in nutrition and food security, and in her conviction that “most sicknesses come from what we eat or don’t eat.”
Each week she teaches around 80 children about soil health, seed sowing, and waste management, offering 5 hours of garden-based education that helps them connect to something bigger than themselves.
The SI nursery also donates 10-30% of its seedlings to local schools, and her work supports the school feeding scheme that is managed by the Nourish team at the SI. For Vuyo, the garden is also a place of healing, and she shares that gift with every child who plants a seed.
Aligned with her work at the SI she is forming partnerships with other women working in different projects because she sees this as a way of extending nourishing food systems that support people. Her understanding of partnerships is useful for people who have never been able to collaborate in their work and she shows how connecting people, ideas and resources contribute to resilience and success. She shares knowledge and experience as a mentor and encourages others through the example she sets.
She is active in urban agriculture participatory mapping with The SCAN Food Systems Working Group (FSWG). This is a collective of dedicated knowledge holders working to enable sustainable food practices within the Stellenbosch community. This initiative, involving NGOs and Stellenbosch University, aims to create a more resilient and equitable food system through learning, capacity development, and knowledge sharing. Here she helped small scale farmers identify their needs and challenges and find out who can support them through their growing phases. The project has registered as a NPC called Food Systems SA, and opened a bank account. They will continue to complete the compliance requirements to be registered as a Public Benefit Organisation with SARS, to be able to attract funding for support.
She is also mentoring three young female farmers at The Waterhub in Franschhoek and sharing her skills in how to make compost and manage pests in food gardens. Further outreach from her happens with Love to Give where she shares her extensive knowledge of plants and planting methods to ensure successful germination rates. Love to Give supports 200 families annually in Kayamandi in a 6-month Sustainable Livelihoods programme and supports job seekers, empowering them to start their own home gardens and small businesses, and attend external skills training.
Nurturing a healthy food ecosystem and regenerative partnerships go hand-in-hand. These extensions to Vuyo’s work at the SI exemplify the SI’s approach to partnerships on all levels. The sense of the inter-connectedness of all things is what enables collaboration to flourish.
Read more: How food can nourish mind, body, soul and the earth
Read more: Regenerative Partnerships