Phindile's Journey to Health and Prosperity through the Taiwan Africa Vegetable Initiative (TAVI) Project

Phindile Mhlanga excitedly explaining how eating healthy vegetables has improved her health. She grows her own vegetables after being identified and selected by the Municipal Council of Manzini’s Community Development Services Department as one of the participants in a World Vision-implemented Taiwan Africa Vegetable Initiative (TAVI) Project, funded by the World Vegetable Center.

Wednesday, February 19, 2025

The excitement in Phindile Mhlanga’s face is nothing but contagious as she gleamingly expresses what eating healthy and nutritious food has done for her health.

A single parent who previously struggled to make ends meet, after losing her employment in 2018, Phindile says having enough daily food for her family was a difficult task. She dreaded each day as she also often faced the torture of painful bones, something she had accepted as her fate for life. However, that all changed when she was identified and selected by the Municipal Council of Manzini’s Community Development Services Department as one of the participants in a World Vision-implemented Taiwan Africa Vegetable Initiative (TAVI) Project, funded by the World Vegetable Center.

– Participants during a cooking demo tasting the variety of foods prepared by Manzini neighbourhood care point caregivers, facilitated by Home Economics Extension Officers supporting a World Vision-implemented Taiwan Africa Vegetable Initiative (TAVI) Project, funded by the World Vegetable Center.

“I was immediately excited when World Vision came and told us they would be supporting us with seedlings for indigenous crops, which they indeed did, following a training by the Ministry of Agriculture,” she states with a wide smile.

Phindile says she was eager to learn and see what the crops would yield since some of them she had never heard of or seen before, thus was quite excited to learn more about them.

Fast-track to January 2025, about eight months after she started growing the crops, she and her family enjoy a healthy diet of a variety of green-leaf vegetables, including blackjack, kale, pumpkin leaves, as well as butternut, amongst other vegetables. What she loves the most is that these all come from her garden. The surplus she sells, making her enough money to be able to afford other necessities to supplement her diet and take care of other basic needs.

A Home Economics Extension Officer from the Ministry of Agriculture showing some of the caregivers who participated in a cooking demo aimed at capacitating them on how to prepare great-tasting vegetables without losing their nutrients.

“You can just see how fresh I am! It’s because of these indigenous foods I eat, which I truly believe have made me very healthy as my bone issues are now a thing of the past as I am super healthy,” she says with a delighted laugh, showing a thumbs-up sign with both hands.

Phindile is from one of 37 households that are participating in the TAVI Project and reaping the benefits of growing crops that are resilient to the prevailing unpredictable climate. She was speaking at an event organised by the municipality in conjunction with World Vision Eswatini, where nine (9) community caregivers from eight (8) neighbourhood care points (NCPs) under the Manzini municipality participated in a cooking demo. This is where they were taught how to cook the indigenous crops they grow in ways that not only ensure they taste good but also preserve the vegetables’ nutrients. Children attending the Ngwane Park NCP as part of their early childhood development had an opportunity to enjoy the healthy food that was prepared, along with everyone that attending the event.

A young boy receiving his food, which was prepared by neighbourhood care point caregivers under the Manzini Municipality during a cooking demo facilitated by Home Economics Extension Officers supporting a World Vision-implemented Taiwan Africa Vegetable Initiative (TAVI) Project, funded by the World Vegetable Center.

Supporting the event were representatives of the Ministry of Agriculture’s Extension Services Department, who provide technical support to the farmers as they grow the crops, as well as those from the Ministry’s Nutrition Department, who educate and demonstrate how to cook nutritious food.

The partnership is one of many implemented by World Vision Eswatini, with support from partners and donors, that will ensure an end to child hunger and malnutrition, as part of the ENOUGH Campaign.

Having launched the ENOUGH Campaign at the beginning of October 2024, World Vision Eswatini is now earnestly implementing activities that aim to achieve the campaign’s objective of ensuring that every child enjoys #enough nourishing food and thrives.