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NGO
Focus—Lesotho Durham Link |
Lesotho Durham Link is
another NGO working towards improving Basotho lives in Lesotho under
extremely difficult conditions. Established in 1986 as a link
between two churches in Lesotho and the UK, the Link has over the
years provided youth, health and community services. Their current
areas of focus include youth and HIV/AIDS services, establishing
landmark projects in both of these areas. And yet, even with the
governments focus on youth and HIV/AIDS, Lesotho Durham Link still
find it difficult to find financial support for their important
activities.
We examine some of these services and ask the recipients their views
on what they have received and also how they would like to see the
services develop.
If we look at Lesotho Durham Links former projects we begin to build
a picture of their experience in community projects. They have been
involved in the Mohatlane Community Education Centre, a centre that
provides a health clinic, a primary school, adult skills workshops
and poultry and piggery facilities. They have developed and now
handed over a Rural Health Centre at Ha Popa linked with St James
Mission Hospital, providing support to antenatal and post natal
mothers and their children and were also involved in the St James
Mission Hospital. Both are now run by the church. Other projects
they have been involved in are poultry and piggery projects linked
to twenty secondary schools and community forestry.
Added to this they also provide an exchange scheme for short periods
of time. Rural Health - Basali 'Moho Day Hospice
An area that Lesotho Durham Link have excelled is in Rural Health.
In partnership with Skillshare Lesotho the Link have set up a pilot
day care hospice in a village outside of TY. Basali 'Moho Day
Hospice was set up after the Link conducted a needs analysis in the
local area. The needs analysis discovered that there were people
being tested and found positive for HIV/AIDS, but they could not
access ARVs or painkillers, thus the centre was set up to help with
these needs. It was discovered that many poor people are infected by
the disease and that it was important that they should generate
income to pay for their transport to and from hospital and to help
support them and their families at home.
The centre currently treats 23 people, mainly women and helps them
come to terms with the disease and provide support through
counselling, food and small amounts of financial assistance. Me
Annie Siyanga, a palative care nurse provided through Skillshare
International, helped to set up the project . When asked what the
centre’s biggest successes were she said “ We have managed to set up
this centre to help support rural women. We have taught them about
self-care, nutrition and how to look after themselves with the
disease. We allocate painkillers supplied by the hospital and
through the community health workers have encouraged women not to
fear the stigma and have enabled them not to feel alone. We have
convinced the very sick to take ARVs, but we also help people stay
off the drugs through ensuring they learn to look after themselves
appropriately. We have also initiated income generation projects
that we hope will improve and help them to lead independent lives.”
I met with five of the women who were willing to talk about the
hospice and HIV/AIDS. When I asked the women whether they wished to
be named in this article they unanimously said they were open about
their status and wished to help educate people about the disease.
This in itself shows the centre is having a good impact in
supporting women deal with the disease. Women are sent to the centre
from the Pilot Health Clinic based at Berea Hospital. After people
have been identified as positive they are counselled at the centre
and then referred to the Basali 'Moho Day Hospice. All of the women
live in the rural villages around TY and have to travel distances of
between 25-50km to the main hospital, some have to cross rivers just
to get there. I asked the women how the hospice helps them. Me
Mathabo Ratsese, a 61 year old woman from Ha Lethokonyane said “I am
happy about the hospice because it helps us to survive”. Me Ntsoaki
Monethi a 25 years old woman from Ha Monethi said ‘ They get us
money to go for testing of our CD4 counts and to get ARVs, they have
also helped us to make clothes and showed us how to plant food and
to grow vegetables’. Libuseng Leche, 29 from Ha Ramajoro said “ It
has helped me to accept the disease and it helps me to know I am not
alone. I am able now able to disclose my disease. It has also helped
me not commit suicide.”
The women told me that they are also able to educate their families
and children about the disease. I asked them how the centre could be
developed to help them with their needs. Mapakiso Maebo, 29 from Ha
Lekhafola said “We need money for a sewing machine and materials, we
need seeds to grow food and second hand clothes to sell. We need
money for transport to go for CD4s counts and medicines at the
hospital and for hospital fees.’ The women told me that they were
afraid that if they get sick they would not be able to travel to
hospital or afford the fees. They would like the centre improved so
they can receive their treatments closer to home.
And what of the impacts if the hospice closed. “Some of us will not
survive, it will be hard for us. We will not be able to check our
CD4s, we will not be able to get the food and the nutrition we
require, or transport to hospital. They give us fruits here and
coins to buy soap to wash our clothes.”
Me Mathabo Ratsese said “We want our clinic here, because it is
local, we need daily counselling and we need work for those who are
still healthy. We want the hospice to be improved so our families
can come here for testing.”
The women of Basali 'Moho are an inspirational bunch. Despite their
illnesses they are still trying to help provide for themselves and
make the centre work for their community. This is why it seems
almost scandalous that once again a centre that can act as an
example of rural health care, has run out of funding. I asked the
staff how much it costs to keep the centre alive and was told by ‘Me
Siyanga that “We need M1500 per month for running costs and a
further M4000 per month for our community nurse. Money to help us
create income generation schemes would also assist us. We have
applied to PACT but have been put on a reserve list and have applied
to Comic Relief who told us to re-apply in February. We have written
to the EU but have received no reply. If we had funding we could
increase the services here as there are many more who need our
help.”
Youth Support
Lesotho Durham Link also bring together a coalition of organisations
that work with children and young people. They work with the Girl
Guide Association, Save the Children, the Juvenile Training Centre,
T'sosane Support Group for HIV/AIDS Orphans and Kananelo Centre for
the Deaf. The groups are provided with outdoor activities that
involve elements of counselling and promotes team building and
working together in the young people. It also gives these children
opportunities that otherwise they might not have access to. Ntate
Stephen Mabula, the Youth Activities Project Manager said “the
activities help children understand that we need each other and
should support each other. It helps them to learn to communicate
more with each other and to develop other life skills’.
From the members of this project a new project is being initiated
called SHAPE. SHAPE involves training peer educators on HIV/AIDS.
Children are trained to educate others on the disease and its
prevention. The children that are trained return to their schools
and have to hold education sessions with other children. The scheme
has proved that the children equipped with this knowledge often take
initiative for themselves and some have begun to help support
home-based carers and orphans in their own villages. So far the
scheme has trained 15 young people who have peer trained children at
their 15 separate schools. The scheme is now approaching funders for
new financial support, but unfortunately an application to the PACT
scheme was turned down.
Lesotho Durham Link are working hard to help and support those in
need. Unfortunately at LCN we hear of many NGOs struggling to
survive despite their good and innovative work. It appears that the
government’s health services are in chaos and the recent presence of
Global Fund to fund HIV/AIDS projects has failed to reach
organisations working on the grass roots. Indeed as Ntate Mabula
from the Link commented “Funding restricts us from expanding and
reaching out to rural people. It restricts us from getting more
staff and to extend our services to people who are really in need.
Especially locally it is difficult to fundraise. Great energy is
spent on this but all too often it is worthless’.
Let us hope that the services that Lesotho Durham Link provide are
recognised and supported. It seems that rural communities need
support to get back on their feet and fight the disease of HIV/AIDS,
but until the government and donors cut out the red tape and ensure
that funds are reaching grass-root services, this is becoming an
impossible dream.
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