Lesotho - Vision of a Farm

A farm in Africa…a vision of what could be

Ntate Thabang, a local grower in the District of Mohale's Hoek, became our consultant in developing a business plan & grant proposal to set up a greenhouse at the St. Camillus Centre.  A greenhouse would enable the Centre to plant & harvest vegetables for the children year round. Up to this point the Centre planted one large field for maize that, once dried & ground, would supply the children the Basotho staple of papa (a cooked corn meal dish similar to polenta only thicker so one can use fingers to scoop it up to eat). In addition, the farm had a smaller field for moroho (chard) & still smaller plots for other vegetables such as beans, tomatoes, & more moroho. Excess vegetables were sold to neighbors & street vendors who in turn sold the moroho to the community.  Mme Mamelo, the farm's day-to-day manager, once estimated that the Centre received about 200Maloti  per month in vegetable sales ($15-20 USD depending on exchange rate). 

Raised bed field - before

It took very little time for Ntate Thabang to see the farm's potential; he advised Sr. Juliana that if the Centre could install an irrigation system & implement improved agriculture techniques, a high yield, profitable commercial produce business was possible.  Sr. Juliana agreed & over the course of several weeks we began meeting regularly to discuss the farm's transformation. However, after having spent a good portion of the prior year working with Rethabile to create a financial plan we knew that we needed to go into this venture with some careful planning. I asked Thabang to create a 3 year crop rotation plan so that we could assess expenses & potential income.

Coincidentally at this time, Peace Corps hosted a project management workshop that I attended to learn about available Peace Corps grants. A great opportunity for the Centre was a grant funded by PEPFAR (a US program: President's Emergency Plan for AIDs Relief); we would qualify for up to $3,750 USD to implement a program to support orphans & vulnerable children (OVC) & people living with HIV/AIDS (PLHIV) if we could contribute $1,250 USD.

Preparing the Fields 

Over the course of July Rethabile & I collected all the necessary budget data for the grant & wrote a compelling justification. Meanwhile, Sr, Juliana used existing funds to begin purchasing irrigation supplies while Thabang, his staff & St. Camillus farm workers cleared the fields, dug trenches, laid the pipes & installed the sprinklers in Field 1-Cabbages; work on Field 2-Green Peppers would follow.

Bo Ntate: Thabang right, Pinda left, Komitsi center

 Caring for the Children

Meanwhile our work with the kids continued. Rethabile lead training sessions with the matrons, the nutritionists visited & weighed the kids, & we introduced a weekly menu.  Successes were slow to realize but the greatest win was seeing that the matrons became increasingly involved & supportive of our efforts.  In all our work, Rethabile & I, engaged the matrons & supported their contributions. Our interactions with the Mohale's Hoek health system also began to improve; nurses & nutritionists acknowledged our efforts to address the nutritional & weight status of the kids.

Attending nutrition class at hospital

Kids getting plenty of fortified rice