The Financial Post has selected 25 charities from a shortlist of organizations that met basic benchmarks for spending on overhead and fundraising, with the bulk of their spending going to charitable work – not executive salaries and fancy parties. Most importantly, they all did a great job providing donors with evidence their donations are having an impact.
Help Lesotho made the list! Read more about the methodology here.
Seventy-five grade seven girls from across Lesotho gathered atHelp Lesotho’s Hlotse Centre for a week-long leadership camp last June. The girls took part in life skills trainings, which focused on preventing teenage pregnancy, rape and HIV/AIDS.
Malilapa Mate says that if you had seen her five months ago, she wouldn’t be the vivacious, smiling young mother she is today. When the twenty-one year old became pregnant two years ago, there was a problem—she had no husband. Without the security of marriage she faced discrimination and harassment in her community.
Read more about The Necessity of a Gendered Approach to HIV/AIDS.
Thirteen-year-old Retsilisitsoe Pone spends her Saturdays washing clothes in a stream and the only local water source that runs through Ha Majara, a village located in the mountainous district of Thaba Tseka in a small African country called Lesotho.
Resilisitsoe is one of over 4220 orphans and vulnerable children (OVC) supported through the Building Local Capacity (BLC) project partnership between Help Lesotho and MSH.
Thirty days of intensive leadership training, plus 58 young adults from rural villages, equals radical change, healing and growth and a new generation of leaders in Lesotho.
Senator Jim Munson read a statement about Help Lesotho to the House of Commons this month!
I had the opportunity to visit Lesotho recently with the Canada-Africa Parliamentary Association, and I can tell you that in some places in Lesotho, the picture is grim. Fortunately, though, life in Lesotho is not a picture. It is a reality in constant motion, and thanks to the involvement of an Ottawa-based NGO called Help Lesotho, the direction of that motion is forward.
From cataracts to crystal clear: Forty-one grandparents have restored vision thanks to free cataract surgery in Lesotho.
Lumelang,
This is my last letter home after two months in Lesotho. It has been an intense and extraordinary time.
The feedback from our first donor trip was more than enthusiastic. Their assurance that they would not change a thing has encouraged me to do this again. Without exception, they were thoughtful, culturally sensitive, interested and engaged. It was so much fun! We laughed a lot.
The depth to which they were moved by their time with our staff and beneficiaries was touching. It was very exciting for me to have this chance to show these committed donors my world in Lesotho, the people I love and the staff who work so hard to make this extraordinary impact possible.
Our Anniversary Celebrations were wonderful (see my last letter) and we got quite a bit of local press. The event was televised in full several times and also played on radio and we got three national newspaper articles:
http://sundayexpress.co.ls/king-letsie-lauds-help-lesotho/
As an aside, I had so hoped that the cosmos flowers would be out – they are fall wild flowers in Lesotho – bursting into pinks and purples all over the alpine fields. They were just coming into their own as I left.
I just missed the installation of the new playground equipment at the Pitseng Centre that Simon Melanson worked so hard to fundraise for.
Two swings and climbing ladders were installed last week and the remaining equipment will be fully in place next week. Other than our Hlotse Centre, I have never seen any playground equipment like it in northern or central Lesotho. I am imagining the little ones – and even the big kids – laughing with abandon and having so much fun at our playground. Those kids deserve some fun! Thank you to all who contributed. We will post photos on our Facebook page as soon as they are available.
As I leave Lesotho, I am so conscious that our programs are unique and incredibly valuable. My mind is preoccupied with ways to address the second part of our anniversary slogan – Ensure the Future.
This is my task over the next few years.
Help Lesotho has surprisingly few large donors. We need to increase the number of large donors, the length of time they commit and the number of people who will consider including Help Lesotho in their will. I know that people want to support organizations that are totally accountable and having a high impact locally. We just need to get the message out.
A few weeks ago a British gentleman came to see to me. He had been visiting a number of charities in both Lesotho and South Africa to understand their approaches to dealing with the high rates of HIV/AIDS. He was so interested in our reiterative, holistic, comprehensive approach and the fact that we keep the same beneficiaries for long times and across multiple programs rather than the usual one-off interventions. I was touched by his interest and his commitment to become involved in and support our work.
One of the last things he said to me was –
“Well, I am going to put Help Lesotho in my will!”
Now that is one step forward in ensuring our future!
I left Lesotho with a happy and proud heart. It was important to have these celebrations, to stop for a minute and reflect on all that has happened. I left moved to tears by the appreciation of our staff and beneficiaries. I left excited about the future – with so many ideas running through my mind.
We have a great story to tell – let’s do it!
Happy Easter to you all.
Peg
PS For those following the eye surgery project, we now have enough funds to ensure 50 surgeries!
PPS Also, the ophthalmologist tells us that sunglasses for the grannies would be a good idea so if you want to save your old ones and give them to us, we will get them to the grannies.
Help Lesotho invited the King and Queen of Lesotho dignitaries and many of the organization’s beneficiaries to celebrate 10 years of empowering girls and women and engaging boys in Lesotho.
Friday was our long awaited 10th Anniversary Celebration in Lesotho.
It was exactly as we imagined – with 700 guests, a wonderful speech from His Majesty, King Letsie III, singing and dancing, poems and cheers. Staff and volunteers came from all over the mountains and worked tirelessly to prepare. One school sent a sheep – which our staff slaughtered on the lawn and cooked.
Above is John Graham, our board chair, myself, the Queen and the King.
The night before we had torrential rains, lightening and high winds. We slept lightly wondering if the tents would fall down during the storm. Despite the weather, youth arrived late into the night to be sure they were present for the morning celebration. All night long ladies were chopping cabbage, peeling carrots and potatoes, slicing pumpkin and beets, and cooking mountains of rice. Everyone else was up by 4am to cook and clean.
The dawn brought a glorious sunrise and an army of youth, staff and volunteers scurrying about in silent, focused activity.
The program included speeches:
Below is a photo of our two Ambassador Girls – Felleng (on the left) who represented Basotho girls for the Canadian celebrations and Lijeng who wonderfully represented girls in Lesotho at our event yesterday. We were being filmed throughout by the Lesotho television network and it appeared immediately afterward.
The country director for one of our partners said after the event: girls can change this country – at least Help Lesotho girls will!
The Ambassadors from Canada are having a wonderful time – despite the challenges of going without internet the whole time, losing electricity for several days and managing without water for a while, everyone is wonderful.
They built key hole gardens with grannies, hiked, rode and walked through villages and caves, met with young mothers and youth and helped to prepare for the event with the staff. We could not have asked for a kinder, more enthusiastic or positive group of people. They have loved every minute of it. Tomorrow we leave for Thaba Tseka – deep in the mountains to explore and meet more of our beneficiaries.
As we close this anniversary year, with our theme ‘CELEBRATE THE SUCCESS AND ENSURE THE FUTURE’ and our focus on gender equity – our first and last priority – one cannot help but reflect on the changes in individuals and villages over these years.
His Majesty commented several times on the effect Help Lesotho is having on his country.
Greeting our former sponsored children and youth makes one proud.
Throughout this anniversary year, all programs here have been doing gender advocacy. It was hysterical and wonderful to see boys doing the traditional women’s dance at the event, and girls participating in the all-male gum boot dance – for the first time ever. Two firsts – initiated by two of our partner schools. The King commented on this as well as examples of changes that are afoot in the land – a turning point.
It takes time to do good development; to change attitudes and behaviours. There was much to celebrate.
In 2004 we had 16 girls in a special hostel, about 75 sponsored children and 30 youth in training. In 2014 we had hundreds of youth in training and 10,000 beneficiaries every year. My mother was our first child sponsor! Her Basotho daughter, Lerato, is 25, HIV negative, unmarried and determined.
Another of our leadership girls is 25 as well, a graduate pharmacist and has a job! Like any proud mother, I could go on and on – each one to be celebrated and supported.
It was a very special day – so many sponsors and partners, chiefs and government officials, country directors and beneficiaries came from afar to be with us and to celebrate the thousands of people who have gained hope, purpose and focus to move forward with their lives.
Truly remarkable!
Peg
PS The eye testing for the grannies in Thaba Tseka went well. Of the 88 tested, 62 require surgery. The doctors say the incidence of cataracts are much higher in the remote mountains due to the lack of sunglasses in an unshaded existence and the toxic fuels used to cook in unventilated, smoke filled huts (cow dung, paraffin, etc.)