![Why Empowering Girls Is Not Enough]()
by Kate Lambert | Mar 8, 2018 | General |
Lessons from the Young Mother Program
The world knows that girls and women must be involved as key players and decision makers for development to be sustainable and effective. The adage that ‘empowering girls and women lifts entire communities’ is not only popular, but often the basis for significant development programming and funding decisions. The problem is that such a statement does not represent the full picture, and used in isolation, such a statement can actually do more harm than good.
At a fall 2017 workshop for young mothers in rural Lesotho, we learned this first hand.
Help Lesotho’s Young Mother Support Program was established to give girls as young as 14 who are pregnant or new mothers the opportunity to learn information to help them take care of their babies. Lesotho, where 25% of people are HIV-positive, has a huge number of children and youth growing up without parents. Girls become pregnant often because they didn’t know pregnancy can be prevented – and now they need to learn how to be mothers, despite not having mothers themselves.
The young mothers love attending the program and the transformation witnessed over the six months from start to end is remarkable. Shy, fragile, sometimes hostile girls and young women arrive on the first day, and they leave as confident young mothers who no longer feel that their challenges define them. If we stopped here, it would appear that the program is a great success, leading to young mothers who know how to prevent HIV transmission, who know how to communicate their feelings, who have strategies to keep building their self-esteem, and even who received support to start micro businesses so they can help support their families.
However, when asked what suggestions the young mothers have for the program, we see a different side.
The young mothers could have made suggestions that would benefit them directly – such as extending the program or increasing the number of relief items distributed. But they don’t – instead, they ask if Help Lesotho can provide training for their partners (boyfriends/husbands) and for their mothers-in-law.
They say they have already learned so much – but their ability to apply what they have learned is hampered – and sometimes even fully sabotaged – by people in their own families. Most often driven by jealousy, husbands and mothers-in-law refuse to let the empowered young mothers have a voice as they fear that their independence and newfound confidence will harm their own reputation in the community. The young mothers need their family members to learn some of the same information they have been learning, particularly when it comes to healthy relationships and good communication,
Empowering girls and women is undoubtedly good – but the ‘community-wide’ impacts are only realized when the community is prepared to respect rather than marginalize those who are empowered.
by Kate Lambert | Dec 14, 2017 | News About Help Lesotho |
We are overjoyed to share the news that Peg Herbert was presented with the Meritorious Service Cross on Tuesday, December 12. The prestigious honour was presented by the Right Honourable Julie Payette, Canada’s Governor General.
Photo Credit: MCpl Vincent Carbonneau, Rideau Hall, OSGG
“Peg Herbert is the founder and executive director of Help Lesotho, an organization dedicated to rebuilding a country devastated by HIV/AIDS. She created a model of support that combines education, grief counselling and gender equity programs to help youth and grandmothers – those most often left in change of their households – become community leaders and role models for positive change.”
Since 2004, Peg has dedicated her life to helping vulnerable people in Lesotho. ‘Help Lesotho’ has become so much more than anyone ever imagined it would be – entirely due to Peg’s tireless passion and commitment for simply doing what is right.
This Meritorious Service Cross award recognizes the honour Peg brings to Canada through her work in Lesotho.
Join us in celebrating Peg and this well-deserved honour by leaving a comment below!
by Kate Lambert | Dec 11, 2017 | General, Stories |
Many of you will remember a photo that Peg Herbert took 12 years ago of a sweet young girl at her primary school in Lesotho. The photo of little Lits’oanelo with a pencil stub tied around her neck for safe-keeping touched many hearts.
Earlier this year, Peg posted this photo as a ‘flashback’ on Twitter.
Shortly thereafter, she received a reply from a young woman in Lesotho who felt a connection to the little girl in the photo, because the girl reminded her of herself. The woman expressed a desire to help the little girl, who is now in high school.
Help Lesotho was able to reconnect with Lits’oanelo and provide her with a pair of shoes, some new clothing, and some school supplies all courtesy of the woman from Twitter.
Stories like this are so encouraging to us! This little girl has inspired so many people to generously support Help Lesotho, and we are so happy to see her doing well as she continues to pursue her education!
by Kate Lambert | Jul 19, 2017 | News About Help Lesotho |
The situation is all too common…a young girl is looking to fill a void left by an absent or abusive father, and an older man seizes the opportunity to offer comfort and gifts – at a price. The term ‘Sugar Daddy’ is an awfully sweet-sounding way to refer to men who leverage their power and wealth to bait young girls into a sexual trap.
Read more about the reality of Sugar Daddies.
by Kate Lambert | Jun 1, 2017 | General |
What is a keyhole garden?
A keyhole garden is a raised, circular garden bed with a keyhole-shaped indentation on one side. The indentation allows gardeners easy access to the garden in order to add uncooked vegetable scraps, grey-water, and manure into a composting basket that sits in the center of the bed. Typically, the walls are made of stone to give the garden a rigid shape, and to help trap moisture in the bed.
Why are keyhole garden necessary?
Having healthy food to eat is essential for people around the world. In Lesotho, where almost 1/4 people are sick with HIV/AIDS, it is especially important that grandmothers are able to grow vegetables to keep themselves and their orphaned grandchildren healthy (especially if they are HIV+ and require nutritious food to help digest their ARV medication). Because seeds and garden tools are very expensive, keyhole gardens are a sustainable, inexpensive solution to feeding these rural families.
What are the benefits of a keyhole garden?
Key Hole Gardens:
- Take very little space
- Do not waste valuable land
- Make gardening easy
- Self-fertilize by using garden waste as fuel to grow vegetables
- Allow frail and/or disabled grandmothers to easily access their crops
- Keep animals from eating the produce due to the raised beds
- Require less water
- Produce 2—10X the number of vegetables
How to build a keyhole garden:
MATERIALS
- Old soda cans (crushed up)
- Large stones/bricks
- Long sticks and a strong string
- Soil, compost, sand, ash, manure and straw
STEPS
- Choose a flat area approx. 3m squared.
- Build the centre ‘basket’ of the garden with the sticks and string. This basket will be filled with cans/compost to feed the garden.
- Use large stones to build the garden wall. Leave an area wide enough to stand in while tending the garden.
- Fill the garden with a layer of cans (for drainage), then soil/manure/straw/ash as you build upwards to waist height.
Click here to support Grandmothers in Lesotho!
