Vuyokazi Makapela, a director at Afrivet, needs little introduction in the world of small-scale farming. Every month, Food For Mzansi readers can look forward to her insights in our brand-new Vuyo’s Voice column.
Directly translated, my name means “great joy” and this is exactly what I will be doing as part of the new One Health campaign.
I deeply believe in bringing great joy and hope into the lives of those I interact with, but most importantly to our communal farmers – which is a space I have been given an opportunity to do exactly that. These small-scale farmers mean so much more for our country than we will ever understand.
I was born in East London and grew up in Mdantsane, both in the Eastern Cape, where most of my childhood memories were created. Eventually, I spent the rest of my teenage and young adult years in Keiskammahoek.
I believe it was not by mistake that our father decided to go back to Keiskammahoek where he grew up. The intention was to connect with his family and his peers as an adult, but deep in his heart he wanted to create employment and develop the economy in the area.
This is where I was exposed to business values and farming and I got to be a part of a village where the principles of “ubuntu” were truly practised and embraced. In my community, lifting others as you rise through the creation of opportunities for self-sustaining communities and shared values was non-negotiable.
Every time I return home, I am filled with deeper passion to make an impact in the lives of these farmers and beyond. As such, we have embarked on several projects that not only seek to educate and develop our communal farmers on product knowledge, as we believe that product without knowledge and knowledge without product is useless.
Introducing One Health
The greater intention is to bring these farmers into the mainstream and get them to become business people that make a contribution, not only to their families, but also to the economy of the country and food security.
The Vuyo’s Voice campaign therefore is not a fly-by-night to gain attention or even to seek funding. This is a long-lasting reach for the One Health concept to be communicated and understood by all South Africans.
At Afrivet, we are proud to be the number one animal health company in South Africa, but we also want to be known for being the company that truly cares and makes a difference in the lives of small-scale farmers, their animals and the communities they live in.
Many would ask what One Health is and simply put, it is an interconnection between humans, animals and environmental health.
This is a concept that came into existence in 2004 as a collaborative approach to address shared health threats such as zoonotic diseases that are passed from humans to environment then animals, and so the cycle continues. Afrivet believes in educating our people about these zoonotic diseases and the threat they pose, not only to their lives, but also to food safety and security.
I am convinced that if we pull together as the private and public sector together with our farmers, we can address most of the challenges that face our communities and the country as a whole. Our approach to public and private partnerships is focused on One Health – which will be covered in one of our upcoming topics.
Over the next few weeks, I will not only expand on One Health, but I will also be sharing some success stories and models that your region or department can learn from and hook onto when it comes to animal health, especially now with elections on the horizon.
- If you are interested in learning more about Afrivet and how we make One Health our main priority, you can send an email to vuyovoice@afrivet.co.za.
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