Lesotho in depth

Lesotho’s high, rugged terrain and extreme climate make it difficult for rural communities to be self-sufficient. Yet with Send a Cow’s support, groups here are developing innovative ways of producing food. In addition to the reassurance of having food for their families each day, farmers also have a product they can sell to pay for healthcare, education and housing. They can also invest in small businesses – vital in Lesotho, where employment opportunities have dwindled in recent years.

Strengthening people

Many of the families we work with here have fallen into extreme poverty only in recent years, since men were made redundant from the South African mines. Before that, men often lived away from home, returning only occasionally.

Bringing men and women closer together is therefore crucial to our work in Lesotho. And, because it is so difficult to earn a living here, we also work hard to bring whole communities together, working on marketing and business ventures.

Lesotho has one of the highest rates of HIV/Aids in the world, leaving communities badly hit. Many people are too weak to work and many children orphaned. In partnership with the charity SOS Villages, we work with a group of orphans and vulnerable children here, helping to give them a better start in life. Find out more about how our work goes beyond food security.

Farming and livestock

Most of Lesotho’s food is imported, leaving families vulnerable to price hikes. Yet with training in sustainable agriculture, the families we work with are becoming more self-sufficient and better nourished.

Our main focus in Lesotho is to encourage families to introduce vegetable gardens near their homes as well as cultivating fields of staple crops. Families learn how to use manure-based compost to keep their vegetables nourished and watered throughout the country’s hot summers and cold winters. These Keyhole gardens, which we introduced to Lesotho, have proven so successful that they have been widely adopted by other non-governmental organisations and local authorities.

The manure for Keyhole Gardens comes from families’ existing livestock, and from goats, rabbits and poultry that we provide (dairy cows aren’t suitable in this terrain).

Caring for the environment

Lesotho faces extremes of weather, exacerbated by climate change. But with Send a Cow training and support, farmers here are learning how to combat the enormous environmental challenges and cultivate their land.

Heavy downpours alternate with dry spells here so water conservation methods are crucial. Send a Cow provides farmers with training and materials for building boreholes.

And because the soils in Lesotho are fragile and easily washed down the steep mountainsides by the rains, huge dongas, or gullies are often created. Planting trees, whose roots bind the soils together, and terracing sloping land are therefore a priority for the country and for Send a Cow’s projects.

Another environmental challenge is regular hailstorms which can destroy crops within hours. Our answer is simple: to provide hailnets to protect vegetable gardens. These now dot the countryside in the areas where we work. Read more about how Send a Cow helps care for the environment.