Community Building

As well as providing individual scholarships and assistance to children and families, M.O.S.A. believes strongly in community development that improves the villages as a whole, opening more opportunities for Basotho youth. 

Some of the community projects M.O.S.A. is involved in are:

 Community Garden for HIV/AIDS Patients and Orphans:

The garden, planted on land donated by the chief of K’huk’hoane village, is maintained by local volunteers and Mohale Youth Group.  Vegetables are harvested and distributed to families affected by HIV/AIDS. Seeds for this project were donated by High Mowing Organic Seeds of Wolcott, Vermont. 

School Improvements 

M.O.S.A. has worked with several schools in the Mohale Region to add resources that will improve the quality of education provided to the students.  Mohale High School, where our Flying Eagles Scholars attend, received a library through African Library Project and the help of young volunteers from Georgia Elementary School in Georgia, Vermont.  We also used donated funds from the community of Georgia to purchase twenty used computers for Mohale High School in 2008.

 
Above: Students carrying the boxes of books on their heads when they arrived in the village in May 2008 (left) and excitedly unpacking them to organize their own library (right)

A student learning to type in the new computer lab.

Mohale High School is one of the luckiest schools in the area to be wired with electricity from the Government of Lesotho.  Most of the local primary schools are not so lucky.  Take a look at the village school of Ha Thaba Bosiu, which is an 8-hour hike through the mountains to the nearest vehicle-accessible road.  Several of our sponsored students came from this school: 

 M.O.S.A. would like to extend its school reform to villages such as these and build new classrooms and libraries.   

Pre-school Project

Pre-schools have recently been introduced all over Lesotho and are extremely important to children’s development at a young age and gives them a great advantage when they begin school.  M.O.S.A. has adopted several pre-schools which we have helped to obtain educational materials such as paper, art-supplies and toys. 

Malnutrition and Children Living with HIV/AIDS

Mohale’s HIV/AIDS clinic currently has twenty HIV-positive children whom they have identified and have begun treatment or will be starting soon.  There are hundreds of others who have yet to be found…all infants born to HIV-positive mothers are now being tested shortly after birth, but some parents of older children will only realize there is a problem once the disease has progressed to a dangerous level. 

I often worked with the HIV kids and got to know all of them and their families very closely.  Due to lack of resources, supplies, and personnel, when the clinic visited their villages once a month, they were always mixed into the long line of people attending the clinic for various other ailments, and never received any special time or treatment of their own.  I always tried to bring them surprises like stickers, toys, and when I could, vitamins and supplements to help them better metabolize their food and medication.  M.O.S.A. project will continue the support to these young victims of HIV/AIDS.

 
Above: Christmas party for children affected by HIV/AIDS in December 2008