A plant is opening up conversations, emotions and connections that many children have never had before.
Johannesburg, South Africa (15 April 2026) – Hope, new life and growth… can owning a plant change the lives of children, their families and their communities? Ultimately shaping societies? Zonja Penzhorn thinks so, and she has proof too, and this week we have her on the poddie!
On this week’s episode of “Good Things with Brent Lindeque”, we sit down with Zonja, the founder and CEO of Human Nature Africa, whose work focuses on prevention at the intersection of human behaviour, addressing gender-based violence, sexual and reproductive health and rights, HIV and mental health. It’s a conversation that digs into what many children are carrying long before they have the tools to process it, and how that shapes not just individual lives, but entire communities.
“What’s often mistaken for coping is simply survival,” Zonja explains, unpacking how fear, anger and sadness are often suppressed rather than understood, and how those early experiences can later show up in the way people engage with the world around them.
Through Human Nature Africa’s Plant Play programme, children are given the opportunity to grow a hyacinth, a flower chosen with intention. It carries no pressure to provide, no expectation beyond care and curiosity and yet it opens something up that many of these children have not experienced in a long time.
“If the bulb is cut open, the flower is already inside,” Zonja shares, a simple but powerful way of showing that the potential is already there.
And she says, there is proof that owning a plant, sometimes the only thing these kids have ever owned, changes everything.
“They became gentle. They became children again. They began to play.”
What started as a small pilot in Diepsloot has already shown how something as simple as a plant can create space for expression, connection and healing. Children begin to open up, to support one another, to find their voices, and in doing so, start shaping a different kind of future for themselves and those around them.
The full conversation is below, and it’s one that leaves you thinking a little differently about change… how it starts, where it grows, and how something small, when done right, can ripple far beyond what we expect.
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