Meetings, meetings, meetings.....

Tuesday was a day of meetings.  In the morning, we met with the staff of Send a Cow at their office here in Maseru.  Send a Cow is a NGO based out of the UK.  Despite the name, they no longer send cows from the UK to Africa, they now focus on community development.  They spoke about their 5 focus areas of Food Security, HIV/AIDS education and outreach, Gender and Social development, Enterprise development and Water and Sanitation.  They had brought Habitat Lesotho in as a partner on a 3 year EU funded project, with Habitat Lesotho taking on the sanitation side.  Over the course of the last 3 years, Habitat Lesotho built 390 pit latrines and created a pamphlet on hygiene and pit latrine maintenance that was given to 2400 people, all with funds from Send a Cow.  Send a Cow Lesotho has expressed interest in continuing a relationship with Habitat Lesotho, since their goals are very much alike.  Send a Cow Lesotho also worked with FIDA Lesotho, a organization of lawyers that helped secure property rights for orphans and vulnerable groups.  This helps prevent the possibility of property grabbing when the parents or guardians of these vulnerable groups pass away.  They also helped draft and create 150 wills for Basotho people, which will also secure their property rights.  During this meeting, we were able to see firsthand what a good partner they had found in Send a Cow.

After this meeting, we stopped at Save the Children orphanage.  While we were unable to tour the orphanage, we were able to stop at Maseru Tapestry which supported the orphanage and purchase some souvenirs.

Our big meeting was with the Minister of Social Development, Honorable Minister Molahlehi Letlotlo and his Principal Secretary Selloane Qhobela.  We started out the meeting with the Minister outlining the mandate of their office, which is very similar to the mission of Habitat.  They focus on moving people out of a welfare situation to one of self-dependence, which is the same as Habitat's policy of "A hand up, not a hand out."  The ministry mostly focuses on education and health care, with housing being a low priority.   We talked about our experiences visiting the families in Mathebe the day before, and how much having safe housing had changed their lives for the better.  We were there to help demonstrate the power of safe housing to improve the overall quality of life for the people served.

We left the meeting with a good feeling that the partnership between the Ministry and Habitat would only grow stronger.

We ended the night with a dinner with Mathabo and 5 members of the board at a local Indian/Basotho fusion restaurant called The Regal Restaurant.  It was a great and informative meeting that lasted over 2 hours.

Tomorrow we will be on the build site in Ha-Mpo village in Qeme, Maseru.  It will be nice to get my hands dirty once again.

Here are a couple more random pictures from the week so far: