Meet Diphoso
Diphoso Gaddafi Maitiyo joined Pabalelo in 2018 and became Director of the Trust in 2022. He offers technical support through his scientific training and is currently doing his MSc at BUAN university as part of our programme to promote natural resources as alternative livelihood options. Diphoso’s local language knowledge and cultural understanding has made him an outstanding asset to Pabalelo’s stature and effectiveness in this area, and he has a passion to protect the traditional lifestyle of his community while ensuring their well-being and food security.
He was born in Samochima, North-western Botswana. He is the second of ten children born to Mr. and Mrs. Maitiyo Maiketso. Diphoso was brought up in an extended family setting where his father and mother were responsible for not only him and his siblings, but also for their cousins and their children. The family survived through subsistence farming and a little bit of formal employment for the father, which took Diphoso and his siblings through their education.
Diphoso started his primary education at Shakawe Primary School in 1996, and after completing Junior Certificate in 2005 at the then Shakawe Community Junior Secondary School, he went on to do his Botswana General Certificate for Secondary Education at Ghanzi Senior Secondary School and completed in 2007. After secondary education he went on to pursue a Bachelor of Science degree in Biological Sciences from the University of Botswana and graduated in 2014. He has also done on-the-job training in Permaculture, which includes Conservation Agriculture, Agroforestry, and Gardening.
Diphoso completed two years (2014-2016) internship under the Department of Water Affairs in Maun, working as a Water Engineer in the Okavango Delta to fight against the invasion of an alien species of aquatic weeds called Kariba weed (Salvinia molesta). In December 2016 he started work at the Department of Crop Production in Shakawe as a Temporary Field Assistant, working with farmers in their fields to collect as much data as possible for the government for a period of six months.
Since February 2018 to date Diphoso has been working at Pabalelo Trust – initially as an Agricultural Programme Developer from February 2018 to January 2019, and recently promoted to the position of Project Coordinator. Both as Agricultural Programme Developer and Project Coordinator, he has been involved in the development of a Permaculture curriculum. He also organizes and facilitates farmers’ workshops and Kgotla meetings. After being promoted to the new post, Diphoso has also assumed managerial roles of ensuring a coordinated flow of activities by managing community outreach programmes, stakeholder involvement, and day-to-day running of the Trust.
