Friends of Lesotho

FOL donation to NHTC coverage

Marty — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 13:44:16 +0000

Friends of Lesotho donate to NHTC

1 Feb 2012

By Staff Reporter

MASERU — Twenty-eight students from the National Health Training College (NHTC) on Monday received US$6 000 (M42 000) from a United States-based charity organisation, Friends of Lesotho (FOL).

Friends of Lesotho is a non-profit organisation of former US Peace Corps volunteers who served in Lesotho from the 1970s to the present.

The donation is meant to help non-resident students pay for their housing and transport costs.

Speaking at the hand-over ceremony in Maseru, US Ambassador Michele Bond said FOL created a scholarship fund to help current NHTC students.

Bond said the donation comes at a time when the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) is building additional dormitories at the NHTC.

“As important as clinics, hospitals and other structures are, it is Basotho health care professionals who are on the front line fighting the battle.

“They need support,” Bond said.

She said the students who had received the donations were selected on the basis of academic merit and financial need.

Speaking at the same occasion, NHTC deputy director, Tahisha Tarr, said this year’s donation was made possible through Janice Stapleton, who was teaching at the college.

Tarr urged the beneficiaries to use the money wisely “so that you continue to excel in your studies”.

“It does not end in the classroom; you should extend this privilege you have to make sure that you are committed to providing excellent health care to your patients” Tarr said.

One of the beneficiaries, Palesa Mathe, told the Lesotho Times that she was happy to receive the money.

Mathe said the gift came at the right time when there was lack of equipment at the college forcing students to seek practice at local hospitals.

“I wish that the Friends of Lesotho could prosper and manage to increase the number of students they are helping,” Mathe said.

FOL was formed in 1986 by a small group of former Peace Corps volunteers who served in Lesotho in the 1960s and 70s.

The organisation currently has about 400 members from all over United States.

Peace Corps Lesotho in WorldView Magazine

Marty — Sun, 15 Jan 2012 13:43:06 +0000

The newest edition of WorldView magazine features RPCVs and members of FOL quite prominently!

LCCU Fire

Marty — Tue, 22 Nov 2011 19:49:28 +0000

The Lesotho Child Counseling Unit (LCCU) emergency orphan shelter had a major fire this past month—just as it was making preparations to celebrate its 10^th anniversary. LCCU is located in Mazenod, on the road to the airport. This large shelter had been the dream of founder, Lydia Muso, since she opened LCCU in her own home in 2001 to care for some of Lesotho’s most vulnerable children. It was completed in 2008, thanks in large part to a significant donation from Standard Bank of Lesotho and many other U.S. and international donors.

We have not been able to reach Lydia by phone since receiving her e-mail about the fire. These pictures were taken by Rose Paradise, a former PCV and founder of Little Angels who has lived in Lesotho since 2003. Here is an excerpt from Rose’s e-mail to me. “From what Lydia told me it happened last Friday, the 11th. She said that she and the children were in the kitchen watching TV, when around 8pm a boy came running to the compound yelling ‘mollo’. The fire apparently started in the laundry room (her theory), which is on the other side of the building. It took the Fire Dept some time to get there from Maseru. When they arrived the building was pretty much destroyed. After that the fire engine from the airport showed up…with very little water…they’re practically across the street. Lydia thinks it started because of faulty wiring to the dryer, but nothing has been proven and the police haven’

t really investigated, nor do they have a Fire Marshal able to determine the real cause of the fire. The police have actually accused Lydia of starting the fire…based on the fact that she was not crying and ranting and raving…why would she start the fire?? For what good reason is what I want to know? There was no insurance on the property. Apparently she let it lapse. Thank God no one was hurt. As you can see, the building is gutted. All the furnishings are gone, clothing, toys, everything gone. To add insult to injury: the people who came to help stole all the blankets that were saved.

The house where LCCU used to be also burned down last Sunday. She had some of her nieces stay there and apparently they had some boys over. She thinks one of the boys is responsible for this fire. She suspects smoking. The police have the boy (about 20 years old) in custody. Now the children are living in her house, currently 21 of them.

When I talked to her she was totally out of it as if she was in shock..not surprising given the circumstances. She says that whenever she goes to town people are asking her why she set her house on fire?

The children at LCCU are not just orphans trying to fend for themselves in their home villages. They have suffered severe abuse inflicted by extended family members and others in their village. Many are victims of beatings, rape, forced marriages and child trafficking. Some are brought to LCCU by the police or social agencies in order to protect them and receive counseling to begin the process of healing.

Scott Rosenberg, FOL Board Member and Professor at Ohio’s Wittenberg University, has travelled to Lesotho with students for many years. This beautiful dorm was one of many projects undertaken by his students. Scott has already begun reaching out to the generous donors from his local rotary who have supported LCCU in the past. The Rotary president is travelling to Lesotho for another project but will meet with a trusted general contractor for an assessment of repair costs. BloomAfrica, a fundraising service group formed by some of Scott’s former students, will also be contacted for help.

FOL’s Donation’s Committee met this past Sunday and is recommending an initial contribution of $6,000 and has begun contacting a number of other non-profit groups working in Lesotho to enlist their support as well.

If you haven’t already made an end-of-year donation to FOL in response to our annual appeal letter, please consider doing so today on behalf of the children of Lesotho Child Counseling Unit.

If you would like more details about LCCU, you can go to our website and download the slideshow presentation prepared for FOL’s 25^th anniversary reunion held in D.C. at the end of September. From the FOL website home page http://www.friendsoflesotho.org/, click on 25^th Anniversary Reunion. Slideshow presentations can be found at the bottom of that page.

I was a volunteer with LCCU between 2003 and 2006. The picture of Lydia at the left with baby Keke was taken a few months after she came to LCCU malnourished and near death from alleged sexual abuse.

Thank you for your concern and generosity, on behalf of Lydia Muso, the children of LCCU and the Board of Friends of Lesotho.

Dyann Van Dusen, FOL Vice President (dyvandusen@yahoo.com)

FOL 2012 Calendar News

Marty — Thu, 13 Oct 2011 00:21:37 +0000

Jeremy Wade Shockley, Lesotho RPCV and current professional photographer, captures terrific scenes for the FOL 2012 calendar. He graciously advertised for us in his blog. Check out http://fedoraphoto.blogspot.com/

Peace Corps Lesotho

Marty — Sun, 10 Apr 2011 13:47:41 +0000

Peace Corps Lesotho is officially on the web!

January 2011 Khotso Newsletter

Marty — Fri, 07 Jan 2011 13:32:11 +0000

The first PC Lesotho Khotso newsletter of 2011 is up!

Find it here.

Fourth Quarter 2010 Newsletter

Marty — Fri, 07 Jan 2011 13:29:13 +0000

Metsoalle ea Lesotho

The newsletter is here! Read it.

Third Quarter 2010 Newsletter

Marty — Fri, 15 Oct 2010 00:50:30 +0000

Metsoalle ea Lesotho

The newsletter is here! Read it.

Peace Corps Mourns the Loss of Volunteer Thomas Maresco

Marty — Sun, 05 Sep 2010 01:37:10 +0000

From peacecorps.gov news release:

WASHINGTON, D.C., Sept. 4, 2010 – Peace Corps Director Aaron S. Williams is saddened to announce the death of Peace Corps volunteer Thomas “Tom” Maresco in Lesotho. Tom, 24, died as a result of a gunshot wound on Sept. 3 in Maseru, the capital of Lesotho. The investigation into this incident is ongoing, but at this time it appears it may have been an attempted robbery.
“Tom was an exceptional volunteer, leader, teacher and coach – he was an integral part of his host community where he shared his passion for teaching, music and sports,” said Director Williams. “We are deeply saddened by this tragic event, and I ask that you keep Tom’s family and our volunteers and staff in Lesotho in your thoughts and prayers.”

Tom, of Port St. Lucie, Fla., was a secondary education teacher in the village of Katse in the highlands district of Thaba-Tseka. He arrived in Lesotho for Peace Corps service in November 2009. A graduate of the University of Florida, Tom served as a science teacher in Lesotho. He was an active member of his local community in Katse and coached youth in a number of sports including basketball and swimming. Tom became his district’s representative on the Peace Corps Lesotho HIV/AIDS committee and was committed to developing innovative ways to address HIV awareness and prevention among young people. He was scheduled to complete his Peace Corps service in January 2012.

The Peace Corps is providing grief counseling and support to volunteers and staff.

The Peace Corps works closely with the Department of State’s Diplomatic Security operations, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and other federal agencies to support, as appropriate, the investigations conducted by host country law enforcement. Crimes committed against Peace Corps volunteers overseas generally fall under the legal jurisdiction of the government of the country in which the crime was committed. In this case, the government of Lesotho will conduct the investigation into this crime.

There are currently 91 volunteers serving in Lesotho. Over 2,100 Americans have served as Peace Corps volunteers in Lesotho since 1967. Volunteers in this Sub-Saharan African nation work in the fields of education and community health and economic development. Geographically, volunteers are distributed throughout all 10 districts of the country.

How do you spell Sesotho in Sesotho?

Marty — Wed, 18 Aug 2010 16:12:39 +0000

This is an interesting question! Since the Sesotho language was not written until the arrival of the first European missionaries in 1833 (a trio of French men), there is no “native spelling” and Sesotho has only been written in Latinate characters. Even now, the only consistent variations in Sesotho spelling are slight differences between the writings of South Africa (originally transliterated by the British) and Lesotho (French).

As for the internal capitalization, that is a longstanding division between white writers, and either is considered correct. Two of the foremost authorities on Lesotho use two different styles, with Elizabeth Eldredge favoring the “seSotho” spelling and Scott Rosenberg, et al., spelling it “Sesotho.” Syntax is not my forte, but the way I understand the distinction is thus: capitalizing the second S is an effort to demonstrate that the -Sotho stem is the proper noun in that thought, while se-, ba-, mo- are only prefixes (essentially the equivalent of articles) and should not be capitalized. I tend to side with Rosenberg on this, feeling that capital letters in the middle of a word are both confusing and slightly exoticizing.

So, to make a long story short, the spelling “Sesotho,” “seSotho” or “SeSotho” is as native and accurate a spelling as there is. I just took a quick glance at an English-language newspaper in Lesotho and saw that they seem to prefer “Sesotho,” for what it’s worth [paragraph 11].

Charles Fogelman

Friends of Lesotho