Mathanda Sikhondze, 2022 Youth Winner (Sinceni, Lubombo)

An extension officer from the area saw the work Mathanda was doing and encouraged her to apply. Her mother being a previous winner further inspired her to join the competition.
Sikhondze is a vegetable farmer from the Lubombo region in a community many NGOs hardly ever reach.
Since she won, Sikhondze has gotten a new drive to take her farming more seriously. She now looks to be more diligent with her record keeping.
The prizes she won has allowed her to expand her business. One of her greatest challenges used to be accessing transport to get her produce to the market. However, with her prize money, she was able to save towards a vehicle.
Meeting a new network of agripreneurs has been a great excitement as they share ideas and swap knowledge with each other.
She is working on a project where they give out trees and motivate school-going youths to engage in farming and teach them the value of agriculture and growing trees. This venture allows er to expose young people to new knowledge and new ways of thinking.
She has also been active in connecting young people to each other, working with youth groups involved with uplifting each other.
She now sees that there are many ways to achieve her agricultural goals which has been greatly helpful to her.