Expert Profile: Nosintu Kwepile 

Nosintu Kwepile is the Quote This Woman+ Voices of the Year joint winner in the Disability category for the year 2022. Nosintu, herself a polio survivor, is the Founder of Abanebhongo Persons with Disabilities in Nqamakwe, Eastern Cape. She is also a Climate Crisis activist and uses her NPO to create vegetable gardens for at-risk families in her community to sustain themselves. She runs a soup kitchen, delivers weekly food parcels in her area and has personally overseen over 100 food gardens being established in the homes of people with disabilities in Xilinxa. She also secured the drilling of a borehole for her community to ensure clean drinking water for everyone. 

Nosintu’s tireless work for Xilinxa and its residents – especially those with disabilities – has improved life for everyone in that area and she builds on that legacy of interdependence and shared growth every day. She has been featured in News24, Gender Links, Daily Maverick, and other notable media on her work.

Nosintu’s quote on what the award means to her:

“For me it means to be there for the voiceless, especially women living with disabilities in the dusty rural villages.”

Contact jordan@quotethiswoman.org.za to Interview Nosintu For Your Next Story.