Lesotho Here I Come!

Tomorrow morning, before most people are even awake, I will be headed to the airport for 3 flights, totaling just about 24 hours, that will eventually land me in Lesotho.  "Lesotho?" you might be asking yourself (like almost every other person has asked me when I tell them where I'll be spending the next six weeks).  Well the answer is yes, Lesotho, and yes, it does exist.

Lesotho is a small country, with a population of just over 2 million, located in the middle of South Africa (the country, not the region).  It is basically a small dot on the map that is generally overlooked.  It is one of only two countries completely surrounded by another country, and it's official name is the Kingdom of Lesotho.  In fact, the government is actually a constitutional monarchy, meaning they have a King (Letsie III) who rules as head of state under their constitutional laws...so cool!  This is not too surprising, though, considering Lesotho was a British territory until it gained full independence on October 4, 1966 (crazy to think my parents are technically older than this country is, sorry mom and dad!).

Looking at pictures of Lesotho (see the background of this blog) one can see it is a place of beauty: mountains upon mountains upon mountains...valleys filled with bright blue water...small brick huts with thatched roofs where the Bastho (people of Lesotho) live.  But inside many of these small homes is a struggle that most of us here in the US are unfamiliar with.  For example, 43% of Lesotho citizens are living below the international poverty line...that's less than $1.25 a day (imagine!).  On top of that, an estimated 24% of people are living with HIV/AIDS, one of the highest rates of this disease in the entire world.  Furthermore, 13% of all children less than 5 years old are suffering from moderate to severe malnutrition.  All of these facts are unnerving, and you will see that they are much of the reason why I'm headed to Lesotho.

My first destination within Lesotho is the capital city of Maseru (mah-say-roo, emphasis on the "roo"), where I will be staying for one night when I arrive.  My final destination will be Mokhotlong, a town nestled deep in the mountains on the western side of the country.  There, I will be staying at the headquarters of Touching Tiny Lives (TTL), a non-profit organization started by a Notre Dame grad (don't you love it already!) with his wife in 2005.  While the husband and wife were working as Peace Corps volunteers in Lesotho, they were approached by a social worker with a little boy abandoned in a thunderstorm by his family, who no longer had the means to support him.  Taking care of this child led to caring for many more children, the development of a "safe-home", and along with that came the birth of Touching Tiny Lives.  TTL still runs this safe home, which houses small children who are extremely malnourished or need immediate HIV treatment, and it also now serves more than 700 children under the age of 5, most of whom are HIV+, through community outreach services.  I will be living at the safe-home for my entire stay in Lesotho.

So, why go to TTL?  Besides the fact that it's an organization with an awesome cause and I get to take care of cute children (who could say no to that?!), I will also be doing research as a requirement for obtaining my Master's of Science Global Health from Notre Dame this July.  My research consists of surveying caregivers of the children who receive TTL's outreach services, along with caregivers of children who are HIV+ and do not receive outreach services (my comparison group for you science and statistics nerds out there!), in order to evaluate the effectiveness of TTL's outreach with regard to antiretroviral therapy adherence.  Phew, that was a mouthful of technical jargon!

Let me explain a bit further...Antiretroviral therapy (ART) is the HIV medication that must be taken every day in order to be effective in keeping the virus at very low levels in the body.  In other words, if you take it correctly, you can prevent disease progression to AIDS.  The problem is, many people do not have access to the medications, and even if they do various obstacles prevent them from properly adhering to the ART regimen.  Some of these barriers include no money for transportation to the clinic, side effects of the drugs, not understanding the drug regimen, or simply forgetting to take it (we are all human after all!).  TTL's outreach services are designed to help people overcome these barriers by providing caregivers with nutritional supplements, cash for transport to the clinic, and check-ups on ART adherence.  My job will be to evaluate whether or not these outreach services are actually accomplishing what they intend to do.

I am really excited to take off for Lesotho, and a bit nervous too (Sesotho is the native language there, so English is not going to get me very far!).  I know this is going be an amazing adventure and one that will probably change my life.  I look forward to sharing this journey with you, so keep checking in for stories and pictures from my adventures in Lesotho!