Success Stories

Jarren Gangiah, a Grade 7 Science teacher at Charles Duna Primary school in Port Elizabeth in the Eastern Cape, is no ordinary science teacher.

With over 1060 pupils at the school in New Brighton, he is passionate about enhancing the lives and minds of his students and the surrounding communities.

“We are as a collective in pursuit of opportunities, experiences and activities that will develop our learners to excel in the 21^st century world,” says Gangiah, who is also the Coding Programme subject head for the school’s Science and Technology Coordinator of Robotics. “Partnering with INMED South Africa and their Health in Action programme has been such a positive experience.” Read more…

Our INMED South Africa team had the pleasure of talking with two young interns from Nelson Mandela University at our aquaponics system at the Missionvale campus in Gqeberha in the Eastern Cape. The area is very poor with a high rate of unemployment and high crime rate with many youth taking drugs. Unathi Mgcebele is 26 and Sinazo Tomose is 22. Both are studying for a Diploma in Agricultural Management at NMU and plan to pursue aquaponics farming when they graduate.  Read more…

Perhaps the most compelling example of the transformational impact of INMED’s Health in Action programme, and the epitome of what INMED strives to accomplish with this programme, is from one of the student participants. Khunedi Mashishi was a fifth-grader at Paradise Bend Primary School in Diepsloot, Gauteng when our team at INMED South Africa first met her. An avid runner, Khunedi has big dreams of competing in the Olympics one day. Read more…

Rainbow High School and Repholositswe Secondary School serve students in two impoverished rural communities in Free State, South Africa. Both areas are plagued by violence, and students have few opportunities for extracurricular activities. INMED’s Adaptive Agriculture Programme worked with the schools to create gardens to provide both nutritious food for school meals as well as an outlet to give youth something productive to do after school. Read more…

Rosie Mateko worked as a teacher in South Africa for 14 years before suffering a severe stroke that left her disabled and forced her to resign from her educational career. It was difficult for Rosie to come to terms with what had happened to her, and she felt a deep sense of loss in addition to the pressure of having to support her four children and two granddaughters as a single, disabled mother. Read more…

The Thabelo Christian Association for the Disabled (a struggling farming cooperative located in a remote mountain village in Venda, Limpopo) works to feed and support an extended household of approximately 40 family members. Each of the cooperative members has physical disabilities, such as missing, deformed or wasted limbs—some as a result of polio. Read more…

Educational institutions in disadvantaged communities are increasingly turning to aquaponics to provide more nutritious meals for students, serve as an educational resource and generate income for school operations. Carel De Wet Technical High School in Vanderbijlpark, for example, was the first recipient of an INMED commercial aquaponic system in South Africa.  Sponsored by Air Products, this system has produced fresh food and income for the school since 2012. Read more…

Each year, the 7th grade students in Port Elizabeth are required to start an entrepreneurship initiative as part of their school curriculum. This year, INMED South Africa encouraged Seyisi Primary School to use its Health in Action garden as its entrepreneurship project. Read more…

A recent survey indicates that 4 out of 10 children in Johannesburg are obese. One way INMED South Africa is fighting this obesity epidemic is through a new Health in Action initiative called “Break Time Buddies.” Break Time Buddies are unemployed youth who have graduated secondary school and are recruited by INMED via local school governing boards. Read more…

Aquaponics is gaining significant interest as a means for subsistence farmers to adapt to climate change. INMED, however, is taking that a step further to provide food security, better nutrition, skills development and even income generation for schools in low-resource communities. Read more…

INMED has partnered with USAID Southern Africa to expand its Adaptive Agriculture Program (AAP) for people with disabilities in the Free State province. The project is integrating people with disabilities into the mainstream economy through new, adaptive agricultural technologies and assisting DPSA in accessing funding for their organisation. Read more…

“People with disabilities are often seen as useless and worse, bad luck,” said Makoena Moeketsi, vice-chair of the Tshwaranang Disabled People Centre in the dry and dusty township of Phomolong near Henneman in South Africa’s Free State province. “But this new INMED aquaponics system has given us a sense of purpose and we take pride in the fact that we’re now helping to feed our community.” Read more…