Teen builds ties to African village

The day Miranda Lynch arrived in the remote South African village of iNzinga, she cried and begged her father to leave.

Just 13 at the time, she saw hunger, disease and poverty the likes of which she’d never seen before.

The day she said goodbye to the people she’d met there, she cried and begged her father to stay.

What happened during that week last summer changed the teenager’s life forever. Now, the 14-year-old Atlantan hopes to change those villagers’ lives forever with a small nonprofit she has launched from her Morningside home.

Called Isipho, the organization focuses exclusively on the small village of iNzinga and the chief contributors to its lingering poverty: malnutrition and illiteracy.

Its mission: to show the entire village how to grow its own vegetables year-round within five years and to provide local teachers with the supplies and training they need.

“When we gave them a shovel, they got right to work,” said Miranda, a ninth-grader at the Paideia School in Atlanta.

“Malnutrition is such a big deal, and it seems ridiculous that they can’t sustain their own nutrition because they don’t have the right tools,” she said. “They have the ambition and the commitment, but they don’t have those tools.

“And it’s so simple,” she said. “I thought, ‘Hey, I can do this. Why not?’ “

In 2008, Miranda and her father, marketing executive Tom Lynch, planned to fly to South Africa on vacation. Before they left, though, they realized they wouldn’t be comfortable with the trip unless they devoted a week to volunteering while they were there. After some research, they decided on iNzinga.

They spent that week living with their hosts, the Zuma family, and getting to know the villagers. Lynch showed schoolteachers how to plant potatoes in the community garden while Miranda taught and played with children. An online video clip shows her teaching the alphabet to a gaggle of giggling kindergartners.

Then there was the bond she formed with 2-year-old Amahle Zuma, who couldn’t say Miranda’s name but called her “Isipho,” the Zulu word for “gift.”

That cinched the deal.

As they waited for their return flight at the airport, Miranda told her father she couldn’t just walk away from what she’d witnessed. She had to do something.

Before they boarded their plane, the Lynchs had already registered their Web site’s domain name —- www.isipho.org —- and started to formulate a plan.

Lynch said the nonprofit intrigues supporters for two reasons: its focus on sustainability, paired with the unexpected discovery that a lone high-schooler acted on her vision to see it through.

“Miranda has absolutely been the driving force behind this,” Lynch said. “She wouldn’t let me say ‘no’ or make excuses.

“I’m doing some things she can’t do as a 14-year-old and supporting her as any parent would,” he said. “But this is not something I ever would have thought I could have taken on. And for her, understanding that she could make a difference has been so empowering.”

Already, he has seen his daughter start to think of education as less of a chore and more of a privilege. And he has seen the formerly shy teenager speak up for others in a way she wasn’t used to doing for herself.

So far, she’s arranged a meeting with a representative from CARE and sought out advice from several Atlanta businesswomen, including Elizabeth Cogswell Baskin, CEO of Tribe Inc., a branding company with a special expertise in the multigenerational work force.

“The great thing about kids in this generation is when they see a problem in the world, they assume it’s within their power to change it,” Baskin said. “Miranda saw what the people in this village were up against, and she jumped into action to create solutions for them.”

The Lynches have already partnered with Cedara College of Agriculture in South Africa to help teach villagers how to manage their own gardens. Another partner, Shuter & Shooter, is donating books to the schools.

Miranda and her father plan to return to the hillside village in August. They will help families plant gardens and then keep returning each subsequent year as more families pass those skills on to their neighbors.

Until then, Miranda plans to respond to e-mail, meet with supporters, exhibit photos of her trip there and organize fund-raisers.

“With homework every afternoon and my social life and prom coming up, it’s very difficult to find the time and the motivation to do this,” she said.

“But I just think about the chance that I have and what it would be like if I stopped and what it would mean to the people of iNzinga and what it would mean to the little girl I was so close to,” she said. “It breaks my heart every time I think about it, and it makes me want to work really, really hard.”