This farmer’s life changed because of OFSP … and radio

Angelina Peter Mlingwa is 26 years old and has two children. She knows orange-fleshed sweet potatoes (OFSP) are nutritious and have lots of vitamins for children. She grows and eats them.

She used to feel dizzy, tired and was losing weight. Her health was very weak. Listening to the radio, she learnt that OFSP have lots of vitamins. She tried them and found changes.

She first learned about OFSP from Saut in Mwanza, a TAHEA project which ended. Later, on Radio Maria, a radio partner of Farm Radio International, she got more information.

She learnt that orange-fleshed sweet potatoes are very nutritious for children. She gave birth to a baby that was not gaining weight. She was advised to give the child OFSP porridge, which helped the baby gain weight. Also when she was anemic, she ate OFSP and drank hibiscus juice, and became healthier.

Angelina knows to prepare different dishes of OFSP like chapatis, porridge, juice, pilau and mchanyato. Her children like mchanyato (OFSP mixed with green gram). OFSP is very helpful to her family.

She has benefited from Radio Maria, where she gets lots of information. She has learned how to prepare lands, how to cut vines and how to cook different dishes of OFSP.

She benefited from broadcasts about OFSP vines, as many people call her and buy her vines after listening to Radio Maria. She has a good business of selling vines.

“We thank for Farm Radio for this project,” Angelina said.

Thanks to OFSP, her first born is now in pre-primary school and she has been able to build a house and move out of her in-laws’.

“Although it is thatched with grass, the important thing is, I’m living at my own house,” she said. She got the money from selling vines.

If the radio show continues to promote her vines she will sell enough to send her children to a better school.