Bantu Mabaso is from Swaziland and is currently studying political science with a concentration in the political economy of development at Bates College. She is a Davis United World College Scholar who graduated from Waterford Kamhlaba UWCSA with an international Baccalaureate Diploma. She is interested in pursuing a career in enacting policy research and advocacy for sustainable food, agriculture and natural resource programs. Bantu is the founder and director of The Phalala Youth Empowerment for Food Security, an initiative designed to combat food shortages caused by severe drought crises in vulnerable communities in rural Swaziland by providing rural youth with the technical skills, capital and mentorship support they need to run income generating, climate-resilient agricultural enterprises that offer an abundant food supply to local communities. Bantu anticipates that the initiative’s success will build local agricultural production capacity in such a way that rural communities can continue to maintain their agrarian way of life and also determine their own developmental trajectories, without falling victim to the effects of climate change.