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LESOTHO: A village tries new ideas to beat climate change

HA TSIU Monday, September 15, 2008 (IRIN) - Chief Paulosi Lebakeng is a troubled man. Food production has dipped in his village of Ha Tsiu, perched about 2,500m above sea level on the Thaba Putsoa mountains, about 100km east of Lesotho's capital, Maseru. Rainfall has become less frequent every year, as has snowfall; both important sources of water for food crops. There are more HIV/AIDS orphans in the village, and the pandemic has also left fewer people to work in the fields. Then, last year,...

LESOTHO: Motlomelo Thakali, "There were days on which I lived on water, but still had my ARVs"

MASERU Monday, September 15, 2008 (IRIN) - Motlomelo Thakali lives with his family of five in Motloang, a village 70km east of Maseru, capital of Lesotho. He is HIV positive and unemployed, and depends on casual work to help feed his family, comprising his daughter, daughter-in-law and three grandchildren. Lesotho's HIV/AIDS prevalence rate of 23.2 percent is one of the world's highest. The country is still recovering from the impact of the 2006/07 drought, the worst in 30 years. "There was...

LESOTHO: Mathabang Letsoara, "We have less than half a sack of maize to live on"

HA TSIU Tuesday, September 16, 2008 (IRIN) - Mathabang Letsoara, in her early twenties, lives with her family of six in Ha Tsiu, a village 100km east of Maseru, capital of Lesotho. Food production in their village has fallen steadily. "We have less than half a sack of maize to live on," she says. Letsoara points to a sack of maize, no higher than her knee, stored in a corner of their mud-and-stone house. It is at least another eight months to the next harvest. Food prices have also gone up....

LESOTHO: Makoanyane Letsoara: "I want to be able to help others who don't have food."

HA TSIU Wednesday, September 17, 2008 (IRIN) - Makoanyane Letsoara, a subsistence farmer in Ha Tsiu, a village 100km east of Maseru, capital of Lesotho, is in his forties and the sole supporter of his family of six - his mother, wife, children and younger siblings. “It has been a difficult year. We did not produce enough maize, but I planted all my seeds because I did not want to restrict my ability to help others in the village. The bigger harvest I will have will help me help others. “Last...

LESOTHO: High, dry and hungry

MASERU Wednesday, September 17, 2008 (IRIN) - Mantseuoa Rantho has been feeding her family on credit. "We call it living on skoloto [credit] in Sesotho," she says. She now owes her neighbours in Ha Tsiu, a village tucked away in Lesotho's Thaba Putsoa Mountains, 100km east of the capital, Maseru, three bowls of maize-meal. Rantho keeps a mental note of her creditors; when she does manage to find the money to buy a sack of maize-meal, she laughs, "You should see how quickly it all disappears."...

LESOTHO: A village tries new ideas to beat climate change

Chief Paulosi Lebakeng is a troubled man. Food production has dipped in his village of Ha Tsiu, perched about 2,500m above sea level on the Thaba Putsoa mountains, about 100km east of Lesotho's capital, Maseru. Rainfall has become less frequent every year, as has snowfall; both important sources of water for food crops. There are more HIV/AIDS orphans in the village, and the pandemic has also left fewer people to work in the fields. Then, last year, the price of maize, the staple cereal, began...

LESOTHO: Water running on empty

Three parched years in a row have drained Lesotho's water sources and thousands of people that are already facing chronic food insecurity risk losing access to water, the spread of disease and death. "Water is increasingly becoming a scarce commodity; this, coupled with recurrent droughts and variable weather patterns ... poses serious challenges," Bernard Batidzirai, Education Specialist at the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF), told IRIN. In 2007 the worst dry spell in three decades put 400,000...

LESOTHO: Holiday gifts pave the way to self-sufficiency

When Mamanuel Rampai heard she would receive a free pig for Christmas a few years ago, purchased by an anonymous donor in the US through an aid group's online gift catalogue, she all but dismissed the present. But the gift, a seven-month-old sow named Pinki, has since made her a role model for other pig farmers in her rural community. "I've learned so much about how to care for them, because they've become a livelihood," Rampai, 43, told IRIN. Rampai lives in Turupu, one of Lesotho’s...

LESOTHO: Hungry for assistance

In the wake of the most severe drought in 30 years, the kingdom of Lesotho has declared a state of emergency and appealed for international assistance for over 400,000 people in need of urgent food aid. "Food assessments conducted by local and international institutions and organisations, including the [government's] Disaster Management Authority, the [UN] Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) and the World Food Programme (WFP), ... all confirm a food crisis," Prime Minister Pakalitha...