Cultivating Dreams: A Mushroom Farmer’s E-Learning Journey to Entrepreneurship
Meet Charity Nkangala, a 30-year-old remarkable oyster mushroom farmer from Mpumalanga in a rural area of Nkomazi.
Charity exemplifies determination in agriculture, born with a disability called Spina Bifida. This is a birth defect that affects the development of the spine and spinal cord, charity has never let her disability prevent her from pursuing her agricultural dreams.
As Roy T. Bennet famously remarked “Turn obstacles into opportunities”, Charity’s enthusiasm for agriculture recently earned her a life-changing opportunity. In June 2024 she completed the Services SETA short course in Entrepreneurial skills, an e-learning course that consists of 10 modules. This entrepreneurial skills course is a training programme that educates individuals in the essential skills and knowledge for small and emerging businesses. It covers a wide range of topics including sales and marketing skills, financial literacy, pricing, and costing.
A couple of weeks after Miss Nkangala completed the Services SETA e-learning short course, her hard work and dedication to agriculture were recognised by the Ehlanzeni Municipality in Mpumalanga. She was awarded an exceptional opportunity to travel to China through the Chinese Culture Exchange programme. According to Charity, the programme is expected to begin early next year and will be conducted at Changzhou Vocational Institute of Mechatronic Technology in China for 6 months.
Charity’s humble beginning marked the inception of her entrepreneurial journey in farming. She took the Services SETA marketing representative through her inspirational journey, emphasising how farming has been a lifelong ambition since her teen years. “I began mushroom farming in the back area at home, where I initially planted for my family’s consumption. However, today my business is flourishing, I am supplying the mushrooms to the entire Nkomazi community”, she said.
She further defined farming as a blend of physical labor, scientific knowledge, and artistic expression of nature. Additionally, apart from being a farmer, she is an agricultural science high school educator in Mpumalanga. She expressed heartfelt gratitude to Services SETA for the entrepreneurial skills programme, pointing out that this opportunity has equipped her with invaluable knowledge, skills and boosted her confidence to propel her farming business forward.
Additionally, she encouraged Services SETA to expand these initiatives to reach a broader audience, also urging everyone to seize such opportunities when they arise. She further stressed the transformative impact these short programmes can have in an individual’s life and businesses, “these programmes give access to new career opportunities while fostering a growth mindset and encouraging entrepreneurship”, she said.
