Happy Holidays!

From the staff and children here in Mokhotlong, we wish you a happy holiday season!  Here's a smattering of photos from our holiday celebration on Friday.

TTL gets a new Fellow

Hello! I am Becky Dale, the newest TTL Fellow here in the stunning mountains of Lesotho.

Sani Pass overlooking the Drakensberg Mountains

I have just arrived from the much flatter (and much warmer!) West African country of Ghana where I spent six months working to improve the quality of primary education in the Volta Region. That position was a departure from my previous work and studies that have focused on central African history, conflict, and development. Needless to say, I am once again about to experience a very different story during my time in Lesotho.

The next year will be a great learning opportunity, and I am both eager to get started and humbled by my ignorance. Yet life in Lesotho will not wait for me to catch up; the work at TTL must continue each day.

I am excited to be joining the staff of TTL, spending time with the babies and their families, and meeting the visitors who make the trek to Mokhotlong. For those unable to visit our Kingdom in the Sky, I look forward to sharing plenty of stories and memorable experiences along the way!

- Becky

World AIDS Day - A Wish

I remember the world before HIV became part of our vernacular. 

My first memory of HIV is the story of Ryan White, a child close to my own age, fighting discrimination and misunderstanding and creating a voice for persons, especially children, living with HIV and AIDS.  I remember outrage; I remember fear and I remember, to a lesser extent, support. 

I remember, 10 years later while working at a hospital in the US, encountering a teenage girl diagnosed with HIV and Tb.  She was the first person I met living with HIV; I now realize that she was dying from AIDS. 

Off and on throughout my healthcare career, I occasionally encountered people of all ages living with various stages of HIV and AIDS.  However, I did not fully comprehend the devastation wrought by this virus until I arrived in Sub-Saharan Africa in 2011.  There is no person here unaffected by HIV; the virus does not discriminate, though the impact is most keenly felt among the world’s destitute.

Regularly, I witness an already taxed healthcare system struggling to cope with the increased demands of HIV.  I witness insufficient resources in every sense of the word:  a scarcity of doctors and nurses; a scarcity of medication; a scarcity of medical supplies; a scarcity of clinics, health centers and hospitals; a scarcity of knowledge and power.  When I first arrived here from a place characterized by consumerism and excess, I was judgmental and I perceived apathy on the part of the health workers.  “Why aren’t they doing more?  Why don’t they care?” were my silent accusations and questions.  Having lived and worked in this resource poor setting for some time, I now realize that the apathy I perceive is more insidious; it is a global apathy towards the world’s impoverished.  HIV is exacerbating the situation.

This global indifference is felt most acutely by the infant whose mother died unnecessarily in childbirth, it is felt by the caregiver who arrives at a health facility after hours of travel only to learn that life-saving medication is not available, it is felt by the nurse or doctor who determines treatment based not on the best interest of the patient, but on the prudent use of limited supplies.  I feel it as I struggle to make sense of this dichotomous world.  I feel it every time I witness the senseless death of a child served by TTL; however, my questions and accusations have shifted, “Why aren’t we doing more?  Why don’t we care?”

There is a philosophy in Lesotho, “Motho ke motho ka batho.” This Sesotho phrase translates to, “A person is a person through other people.”  This is the language of the interconnectedness of all living things; the language of faith in humanity.  It is the ethos that brings the Basotho together to care for one another; it is a life of resilience and unity.  It is the giver of hope to those silenced by poverty and oppression, and to me. 

It is my wish for World AIDS Day, for everyday, that this belief be understood and embodied by all of humanity.  It is my wish that we all identify with and choose a life of global solidarity.  In the brave words of one of my Masotho co-workers, “My plea is that a cure for HIV/AIDS be found.  It is killing us, especially those living in developing countries.  I am realizing that one day it would be like a history that the Basotho nation once existed.”

Outreach Staff, Bo'M'e Kokonyana and Mantja

Safe home kiddos, 'M'e Mapoloko and 'M'e Maliphoofolo

Safe home and administrative staff in red for World AIDS Day

A Field Trip!

The caregivers for the safe home work hard!  Their work requires a combination of day shift and night shift, seven days a week.  It is a challenge to give the group time off of work because there always seem to be little ones here that need their care and support.

Last week, those of us in a more administrative role risked encounters with kaka and exhaustion to allow the Bo’M’e of the safe home to take a field trip to Beautiful Gate, an orphanage here in Lesotho.  The caregivers wanted to share a little bit about the experience with you!

Group shot in front of the Beautiful Gate building

As we got to Beautiful Gate we were welcomed and started moving places. This is when we were brought together to be told how the organization was started and its operation on a daily basis. Next, we moved around the campus and that’s where we discovered that children who stay there are divided into families being Khotso, Pula and Nala (Peace, Rain and Prosperity).  Tours like this one are very helpful to us because this where we are able to exchange ideas with those who are in the same field with us. Even once in year can be appreciated for us to pay a visit to other orphanage homes.

First and foremost, we pass our gratitude to our managing director ‘M’e Nthabeleng Lephoto who raised the point that we, safe home mothers, should visit Beautiful Gate to go and learn how it operates as far as the kids welfare is concerned.  Apart from that, we also thank our dear fellows Jennifer and Brad whom we do believe that in collaboration with our director also liked the idea.  This is why this was successful.

Furthermore, we pass our thanks to all those who played a major part in looking after the kids and other office duties while we were away.

We are so glad that you enjoyed the trip and brought back ideas to share about how to improve TTL!  I’d like our readers to note that Brad conspicuously returned to America days before the outing occurred. 

‘M’e Nthabeleng and myself have a new respect for the work of the safe home caregivers!  Our efforts to institute group naptime, workers included, were not successful. 

Village Health Workers...Our Eyes and Ears

For many Basotho, health clinics are a multiple day journey away via foot, horseback and / or motorized transport.  Village Health Workers (VHWs) are the eyes and ears for both health clinics and TTL; they are an indispensable resource within the community.  VHWs are community members specially trained by the Ministry of Health to help ensure identification of, and timely referral for, myriad childhood illnesses.

Often, trainings for VHWs are far and few between.  Recently, thanks to a donation from The Caring Network, TTL has been able to help VHWs in the Thaba Tseka and Mokhotlong districts receive additional training.  The trainings have two components:  a refresher component about identification of children suffering from malnutrition as well as new training about timely identification of common childhood illnesses, including appropriate referral and how to support the infant or child in the event of a multiple day journey to a health facility.

Though we can’t change the terrain of this beautiful ‘sky kingdom,’ we can help diminish the challenges faced by those living in the beautiful, but remote, mountain villages by ensuring that all available VHWs are empowered with knowledge to make life-saving referral decisions.  

Thank you, 'Me Malefu, for facilitating the session!

Linakaneng VHW training (Thaba Tseka district)