Poloko Rapport of Maquassi Hills English Secondary School in North West and Majoleeh Muller of Paarl Girls’ High School will present their food security research in Des Moines, Iowa, this week, joining roughly 200 high school pupils from around the world. Both are in Grade 10.
The two will attend the World Food Prize Foundation’s Global Youth Institute from Tuesday, October 20 to Thursday, October 22. Each will present a Global Challenge paper developed during the programme. Rapport examined human health and nutrition in Somalia. Muller investigated fruit waste as a potential livestock feed in Mozambique. Beyond the presentations, both will join roundtable discussions with international experts in science, industry and policy.
The programme behind them ran on the ground first. The research took shape at the inaugural South Africa Youth Institute, hosted in June by Stellenbosch University’s Faculty of AgriSciences in partnership with the World Food Prize Foundation. Rapport and Muller were selected from 39 Grade 10 pupils drawn from six provinces, with nearly 70% of participants being girls. It is the fourth World Food Prize Youth Institute in Africa and the first in the Southern African Development Community.
Francine Barchett, co-coordinator of the South Africa Youth Institute, said the programme was built to widen access to the machinery of research and international work.
“South Africa has extraordinary young talent, but access to research, mentorship and global networks is still uneven,” she said. “The South Africa Youth Institute was created to widen those opportunities and help more young people see a place for themselves in the future of food and agriculture. Majoleeh and Poloko are outstanding young researchers who will carry their own solutions from South Africa to a global stage.”
Meanwhile, the event they are travelling to sits within a larger platform. The Global Youth Institute runs alongside the Norman E. Borlaug International Dialogue, described as the world’s leading annual gathering on food and agriculture. This year’s dialogue carries the theme Before Hunger Wins and coincides with the 40th anniversary of the World Food Prize, founded in 1986 by Nobel Peace Prize laureate Dr Norman Borlaug and often called the “Nobel Prize for Food and Agriculture”.
Speakers on the 2026 programme include Qu Dongyu, director-general of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Malala Yousafzai. The pupils will also attend the World Food Prize Laureate Award Ceremony, where 2026 laureate Huub Lelieveld of the Netherlands will be honoured as the first laureate in the prize’s history recognised for work in food safety.
For both pupils, the week carries personal weight as well. “Being selected means so much because it sends a strong message: people like me can create real change,” said Rapport. “I’m excited to meet fellow young people who are just as passionate as me to make a difference.”
Muller said she hoped the trip would yield more than an experience abroad. “I hope to make friends and bring new knowledge and inspiration back to South Africa, which I will share with my community,” she said. “I’m also proud to be part of a global community working towards a more sustainable future.”
The trip will also mark the first visit to the United States for both pupils, and a test of whether research built in Stellenbosch in June can hold its own on a stage of 200.