VZCZCXRO4408
PP RUEHBZ RUEHDU RUEHJO RUEHRN
DE RUEHMR #0630/01 3611020
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P R 271020Z DEC 06
FM AMEMBASSY MASERU
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 2509
INFO RUCNSAD/SOUTHERN AFRICAN DEVELOPMENT COMMUNITY
RUEHMR/AMEMBASSY MASERU 2849

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 MASERU 000630 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
 
FOR AF/S 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: KHIV EAID KDEM LT
SUBJECT: AMBASSADOR VISITS PEPFAR USG-SUPPORTED HIV/AIDS SITES 
 
 
MASERU 00000630  001.2 OF 002 
 
 
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SUMMARY 
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¶1.  On November 27, Ambassador June Carter Perry and a team of 
U.S. Government HIV/AIDS program staff, including Peace Corps 
and RHAP Pretoria, and CDC Lesotho, visited multiple 
PEPFAR-supported programs in the District of Leribe.  During the 
four sites reviewed, the Ambassador offered remarks emphasizing 
the ABC approach, women's rights and the democratic process in 
light of pending national elections.  She traveled to remote 
villages and met with caregivers.  END SUMMARY. 
 
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PEPFAR PROGRAMS 
------------------------ 
 
¶2.  In August 2006, the United States Government committed US$ 7 
million to help Lesotho fight HIV/AIDS under the President's 
Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR).  Following up on this 
support, Ambassador Perry visited multiple program sites in the 
District of Leribe on November 27, 2006.  The Ambassador was 
also accompanied by a team of USG HIV/AIDS program staff from 
CARE Lesotho-South Africa, Population Services International 
(PSI),  PACT, and Peace Corps Lesotho. 
 
------------------------------ 
Progress to-date of Visited Programs 
------------------------------ 
 
¶A.  CARE 
 
CARE Lesotho-South Africa operates the CARE Letsema Integrated 
Community Home Based Care (CHBC) Project.    The long-term goal 
of this project is to strengthen the ability and capacity among 
families and communities to provide integrated care and support 
for AIDS-affected households.  CARE aims to do this by:  1) 
strengthening CHBC providers, reaching both people living with 
HIV/AIDS (PLWHA) and/or orphans and vulnerable children (OVC); 
2) providing financial, technical and organizational capacity to 
six (6) local CBO implementing partners; and 3) strengthening 
economic coping mechanisms and social safety nets within 
affected and vulnerable households through the establishment of 
voluntary savings and loan (VS&L) groups amongst care givers. 
CARE is currently in partnership with local grantees which have 
since been provided with organizational development capacity 
strengthening.  The project has provided 5,948 individuals with 
HIV-prevention education, focused on abstinence and "be 
faithful" messages; 1,444 individuals are being provided with 
home-based care services; and 1,292 orphans and vulnerable 
children are being provided with care and support services. 
During a dialogue with the Ambassador, caregivers stated the 
challenges they face, including stigmatization of patients and 
lack of sufficient stipends.  The CHBC often use their own 
meager funds to feed and transport patients. 
 
¶B.  PACT 
 
With support from a grant signed this month with USAID/RHAP, 
PACT operates a community-based support group for people within 
the Leribe district living with HIV/AIDS.  Three satellite 
groups exist within Leribe in addition to the main group based 
in Motebang Hospital where U.S. funded personnel and a Peace 
Corps Volunteers work collaboratively with the GOL and a 
Canadian medical team.  The satellite groups are situated in 
Peka, a rural village; Maputsoe, an urban border-crossing hub 
with a migrant/textile worker population; and Mamohau, a 
mountainous village. 
 
In addition to these support services, PACT currently runs 
Gardens of Hope, a permaculture garden located at the Motebang 
Hospital for growing medicinal herbs and marketing them to the 
sick people who come to the clinic.  They are also engaged in a 
project called SOLID Leribe.  The project's key objectives are 
the establishment of five new HIV-AIDS support groups in Leribe; 
the use of public gatherings to ensure access to HIV counseling 
and testing; training of group members to provide a range of 
care and support services for existing and newly established 
support groups; initiation of a treatment adherence support 
program in Leribe that is clinic-based; and the development of 
an HIV Support Center to be based at the hospital clinic. 
 
Under a three-year grant signed in April 2006, PACT with support 
from USAID/RHAP Society of Women Against AIDS in Africa-Lesotho 
(SWAALES), provides care and support services to 300 Orphans and 
Vulnerable Children (OVC) in ten villages in the Leribe and 
Maseru Districts.  Members are taught how to care for those who 
have patients (caring for the caregivers) and to provide 
home-based care and counseling.  The main care and support 
services provided through the program are tailored to meet the 
educational, health and psychological needs of children.  To 
 
MASERU 00000630  002.2 OF 002 
 
 
date, twenty community-based "monitors" have been trained to 
provide care and support to OVC; 385 children have been provided 
with nutritional, educational and psycho-social support 
services; and several OVC have been referred to the health 
center for health care needs. 
 
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Peace Corps, SSH and AGSP Sites 
------------------------------ 
 
¶C.  Molapo High School 
 
A US Peace Corps Volunteer has been able to assist Molapo High 
School in a sustainable agricultural/permaculture project 
through PEPFAR-supported VAST grants.  The funds paid for an 
irrigation system and shade structures for the school garden. 
Due to these improvements, the high school has been able to 
conserve water for irrigation and will be able to have 
commercial vegetable production and a fruit tree plantation. 
They have also established a greenhouse for growing seedlings, 
which will help the OVC attending this institution to generate 
income.  The income already generated from this project has 
helped to pay school fees for over 85 OVC.  The Ambassador was 
greeted by the principal and also presented supplies to one of 
the Ambassador's Girls' Scholarship students there. 
 
¶D.  Phelisanong Pitseng with the Disabled 
 
Phelisanong Pitseng with the Disabled was funded under the 
Ambassador's Special Self-Help program to construct a 
handicrafts center in support of the needs of people with 
disabilities and also a building used to provide food and 
shelter for this group of victims of discrimination.  The main 
objective of the group is to improve the lives of its members 
and community by supporting and developing skills and creating 
income-generating activities.  A PCV has assisted the group in 
strengthening its administrative skills, community organizing, 
skill sharing, marketing, agricultural skills (food security) as 
well as strategies for advocacy.  The ages of the group members 
range from 4 to 40 years and there are 30-40 live-in members, 
while the total including members from other villages is 500. 
The Chieftaness of the area granted land for the project and she 
offered welcoming remarks to the Ambassador who praised the 
courage of the villagers and the quality of their products. 
 
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Counseling and Testing 
-------------------------- 
 
¶3.  PSI has been involved in prevention and Voluntary Counseling 
and Testing (VCT) in Lesotho.  In 2001, PSI received funding 
from USAID to establish a stand-alone platform in Lesotho and to 
launch condoms.  The program is focused on high-risk Basotho in 
high-risk areas (Maseru and Maputsoe).  In 2004, also, through 
funding from the Regional HIV/AIDS Program for Southern Africa 
(RHAP), PSI expanded into Voluntary Counseling and Testing 
(VCT), opening three centers in Maseru, Maputsoe and Mafeteng 
sites; the first three sites in the New Start network. In March 
2005, PSI received funding from CDC to open two more VCT 
centers; in Qacha's Nek and Butha Buthe.  PSI currently provides 
the following services:  Social marketing of condoms and VCT; 
site-based and mobile VCT; post-test clubs; peer education and 
training; training in basic HIV/AIDS, counseling and testing. 
The training also emphasizes abstinence as a preventive 
mechanism, a point reinforced by the Ambassador. 
 
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COMMENT 
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¶4.  Several US-based international and local organizations have 
committed to support Lesotho's efforts by providing 
multi-faceted expertise in the combat of the pandemic, namely, 
CARE, USAID, CDC, PACT, PSI, and Peace Corps.  Likewise, the 
local groups have indicated a willingness to grasp the 
intervention hitherto provided.  The Government of Lesotho also 
has indicated a strong leadership role in the fight against this 
disease.  There is a remarkable and marked response from all 
parties involved, but it is clear more capacity building and 
funding are needed.  END COMMENT. 
 
 
 
 
 
MURPHY 
PERRY