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There is a new street name in Maseru. What had previously been
known only as "the bypass road" is now Kofi Annan Road.
The UN Secretary General was in the area for the World Summit
on Sustainable Development (in Johannesburg), and visited Lesotho,
Botswana, and Mozambique. He asked that there be no fanfare, since
the nature of the visit was regarding the current food crisis,
but the local government wanted to bar all street vendors from
the streets (they were unsuccessful in this), and the road to
the UN office compound got paved.
The main focus of the JHAH South Africa network is still the
campaign for the Basic Income Grant (BIG). A recent report by
a parliamentary committee of inquiry indicated that the BIG is
a feasible proposal (if there is the political will). We are expecting
to start more provincial networks over the next few months in
the northern part of the country.
Since the formation of the JHAH Lesotho network, members have
developed a vision statement ("To have a program of action
which is aimed at sensitizing people about the challenges of poverty,
finding out about the root causes of poverty, and reallocation
of scarce resources nation-wide") and we’ve been working
on an action plan. The proposal is to develop a hunger awareness
curriculum for member organizations, with practical components
(e.g. agriculture, small business, education, gender, and globalization
issues). We hope to follow the pattern used by HIV/AIDS awareness
campaigns; HIV/AIDS is thought to be a significant enough problem
(31-41% infection rate among the population of Lesotho) that almost
every development and education endeavor has made it a priority
to incorporate AIDS awareness and prevention into their existing
programs. We want to do the same thing with hunger and poverty,
since 58% of the population falls below Lesotho’s poverty
line of M124.00 (about $12) per person per month, and 39% are
considered "ultra-poor." Although the numbers for poverty
are as staggering as the numbers for HIV/AIDS, there are few avenues
for discussions at the grassroots level on the issues of poverty.
I (Bob) have been continually realizing that it is not easy to
communicate well cross-culturally. Sometimes in a meeting I think
we’re all "on the same page," only to discover
later in one-on-one discussions that my understanding of what
was discussed was quite different from what the others understood.
Just because we’re all speaking English doesn’t mean
we’re communicating accurately.
We mentioned in an earlier letter that there is quite a high
incidence in Lesotho of abandonment of newborn babies. Why are
children abandoned in Lesotho? From what we hear through the grapevine,
there seems to be a higher prevalence of this in the urban areas
of Maseru and Leribe. A lot of the young women abandoning their
children are factory workers who work seven days a week in twelve-hour
shifts. This keeps production costs down so the factories can
be competitive. These women have no time to take care of babies,
and they can’t afford to have someone else take care of them.
By law, women are entitled to three months of maternity leave,
but it’s not enforced, so factories in essence don’t
give any leave. The woman is then faced with a choice between
giving up their work (and whatever small amount of security it
brings), getting an abortion, or giving up their babies. This
is a real survival issue, because if they lose their job it could
take a year or two to get another one. Some folks we know are
endeavoring to set up a crisis pregnancy center here, though it’s
unlikely anyone working a 12-hour shift could take advantage of
this service. And it still can’t adequately address the injustice
of the workplaces. This is an illustration of why root causes
of poverty and economic injustice need to be addressed and not
just covered over by "band-aid" solutions and helpful
programs that try to reduce the damage being done.
We haven’t done very well at individual correspondence,
but we do hope you’ll feel re-connected by this letter. Please
continue to keep in touch. We value your continued support and
encouragement through prayers, e-mails, and notes.
Khotso, pula, nala (peace, rain, abundance),
Bob & Samantha
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