For many turning 60 means retirement or slowing down, but not for KwaZulu-Natal entrepreneur and doctorate graduate Mbali Ngcamu.
The partially blind 62-year-old last week fulfilled her motto of “never giving up” when she obtained her PhD in food nutrition and security at Stellenbosch University.
In the face of various obstacles, including ill health and visual impairment that cut short her career as a radiographer, followed by the loss of her home in last year’s devastating KZN floods, Ngcamu has remained determined to make the world better and more inclusive.
Her thesis titled “The effects of sauerkraut on human health, nutrition and food security: a review of the literature”, on how cabbage can be processed locally to improve food security and nutrition, has taken her academic journey to greater heights.
Sauerkraut, a finely cut raw cabbage that has been fermented by various lactic acid bacteria, is one of the most common and oldest forms of preserving cabbage. Its nutritional value has a major impact on human health not only for its few calories but for the large quantity of lactic acid, amino acids and vitamins.
“By taking our own health seriously and into our own hands by choosing what we eat, we can one day have a country free of malnourished children with stunted growth,” she said.
Ngcamu’s personal journey to success features many setbacks and milestones. When her eyesight impeded her work as a radiographer, she opened a bakery franchise to support her son and her siblings. She was forced to close it because of the “oppressive and discriminatory” treatment of African women in business. Her desire to better understand issues affecting local communities has long motivated her studies.
“I was not ready to give up,” she said, adding she forged ahead to complete a BA in social sciences and BCom in small business development, including a postgraduate diploma in disability studies at the University of Cape Town (UCT) to explore the challenges disabled women entrepreneurs faced.
Ill health again stopped her from completing her Mphil degree in inclusive innovation, in which she researched how businesses could accommodate more people with disabilities. When diagnosed with a thyroid condition that threatened her life, Ngcamu developed an interest on how fermented foods healed the body, prompting her to start a business that promoted gut health. This allowed her to experiment with brewed and fermented food products in her own kitchen.
Again,curiosity set her on a new academic path, and she next registered at Stellenbosch University for her PhD in food nutrition and security. Last year’s floods not only left her home without a roof, but her laptop with its assistive technology was also lost, forcing her to relocate to Cape Town for support on campus.
“Only a visually impaired person will understand what it means to try and get by without the software,” she said.
While impaired vision has been a constant challenge throughout her academic career, she will not let this dampen her hunger for knowledge, and in 2024 she hopes to commence with another PhD in 2024.
Meanwhile Cape Town occupational therapist Elana Solomon channelled her personal experience with deafness into academic research that will benefit children with disabilities and their teachers.
When Solomon received her master’s degree in human rehabilitation studies at the same university, it was the culmination of a remarkable journey, a testament to her determination and passion for helping others.
Solomon was nine months old when her parents suspected something might be wrong with her. They noticed she did not respond to sounds and voices. Initial tests showed no hearing loss, but as Solomon grew older she missed developmental milestones.
“At the age of five and a half, after many years of seeing various professionals and being told were was no evidence of a hearing loss, I was finally diagnosed with a profound sensorineural hearing loss in the right ear and a moderate to severe sensorineural hearing loss in my left ear.”
“My parents were devastated as they felt that the late diagnosis of my hearing loss had disadvantaged their child. I was then fitted with the hearing aid on my left ear,” Solomon said.
At the age of 13, she finally received a cochlear implant, which enabled her to enrol in a mainstream school, Wynberg Girls’ High School, in grade 8.
“It was quite an adjustment to move from a school with 80 learners to a school with 900 learners. I worked incredibly hard and had a positive attitude. I developed my own strategies on how to support myself academically. I used to wear an FM system to be able to hear my teachers.”
Having personally experienced the positive impact of a supportive school environment, she studied occupational therapy. Her master’s thesis looked at the challenges faced by occupational therapists and teachers in implementing vocational programmes for pupils with severe intellectual disabilities.
Said Solomon: “I want to contribute to policy revisions and the development of key actions needed for the strengthening of various rehabilitation and disability-related programmes. My hope is to improve the rehabilitation programmes within the South African education system so that pupils with disabilities, teachers and the schools as a whole can feel supported.”
TimesLIVE
Support independent journalism by subscribing to the Sunday Times. Just R20 for the first month.
Would you like to comment on this article?
Sign up (it's quick and free) or sign in now.
Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.