SARID’s Role in Aiding the Lesotho Community During the Coronavirus Pandemic
The South Asian Research Institution for Policy and Development, SARID is a USA based 501c3 non-profit organization, dedicated to supporting struggling communities across the globe through various charitable initiatives. SARID has operated in several nations, including Lesotho with the aim to trigger and aid development. Lesotho is a landlocked country in Southern Africa, stretching over a land only as big as one fourth of New York that is home to over two million people.
In the past, SARID’s focus has been on providing affordable and sustainable housing to the Lesotho community. Through collaboration with Sisters of Charity of Ottawa (SCO), a Roman Catholic Charity working in Lesotho and South Africa, SARID has been able to build a prototype net-zero home that requires no fossil fuel heating even in bitterly cold winters. The home utilizes recyclable waste, including polystyrene (Styrofoam) lunch boxes, and relies on manual labor to create employment among the less skilled. To learn more, please visit the SARID website: https://saridweb.org/.
In 2020, following the Coronavirus Pandemic, SARID pivoted its focus to helping the Lesotho community in its fight against COVID-19. Amongst other things, SARID recommended safety practices, the Standard Operating Procedure (SOP), which are widely adopted all over the world, and include social distancing, mask wearing, handwashing with soap, etc. These SOPs were adopted by the Lesotho community without hesitation. The SOP were continuously promoted by SCO, in the local Lesotho language, through national level radio programs. SARID funded the purchase of sewing machines and cloth, and worked closely with SCO to manufacture thousands of reusable and washable cloth masks. The masks were given free of charge to the poor and vulnerable and at a low cost to those who could afford to pay. Due to the quick actions taken by SARID and our partner, SCO, Lesotho is amongst the countries with lowest COVID cases in the world. To learn more about the preventive strategies against COVID recommended by SARID, please visit our website: https://saridweb.org/.
The second major focus of SARID since the pandemic is food productions. Lesotho has been fighting a battle with food insecurity for decades, and the pandemic accelerated the issue, putting an alarming percentage of the population at a risk of losing their lives to hunger and famine. According to the 2020 Global Hunger Index, Lesotho is amongst the world’s top ten hungriest nations. Ironically, farmers and their families in the low income Lesotho communities have always been the most vulnerable to the issues of food insecurity as they lack the proper equipment to adapt to changing climates and unpredictable weather conditions.
Over the last year, SARID has worked closely with SCO to improve self-reliance and food security in Lesotho through community as well as individual level projects that protect the rights of farmers, landowners, and other Stakeholders. SARID devised several economic models based mainly on sweat equity participation, where in return for the labor provided by farmers and other community members, they were promised food as well as a certain percentage of the harvest. About70 acres of land was planted with maize, millet, wheat and vegetables. We started with a small percentage of land and had a few people as partners eager to work for food. Through the help of our donors, we were able to provide essential capital investment, which was employed to purchase seeds, fertilizers, pesticides, and farming equipment.
We faced many challenges along the way, including a shortage of water; however, the sisters from SCO along with other community members showed great resilience and worked relentlessly. Many female farmers carried water every day to the farms, learned to drive tractors, and use other farm equipment. Through SARID’s encouragement, SCO distributed a percentage of food to the most vulnerable members of the Lesotho community. The harvest this year will provide the community with over two years of food; however, the sisters want to continue to increase food production as well as to create employment opportunities for the poor. Their goal is to double the food production by next year. In order to help preserve perishables, such as vegetables, SCO/ SARID have bought food de-hydrating machines for long-term storage.
After many consecutive, successful crop harvests, SARID contributed to the expansion of poultry farming. The Lesotho community has now launched individual as well as communal “empowerment programs”. Over two hundred egg laying chicken have been bought, and individuals are being given seed money to start their own poultry farms. In return for helping with cattle, female farmers are given some dairy products and eggs to feed themselves and their families. Amongst other things, these farmers are instructed to use the byproducts of crops such as corn to feed the cattle, and use the animal waste to produce fertilizers. Hence, the aim of our models of agriculture in Lesotho is organic farming, maximum utilization of the available resources, reduced use of insecticides and pesticides, and promotion of sustainable farming.
SARID recently identified a potential for beekeeping in Lesotho. Over the past few months, SARID provided the required resources to build Lesotho’s first beehives, and invited the local people to construct beehives in SARID’s workshop in Lesotho. Over 40 beehives have already been built, and our goal is to build over 200 beehives. Beekeeping is an ongoing project, and has already proven to be successful as there is now enough honey that it can be bottled and sold in public markets. SARID-SCO are now exploring making value added honey based products to be sold in the market.
After the success of these ventures, we are determined to remain of service to the Lesotho community, and play a role in enabling the country to become self-reliant and prosperous.
Coauthored by Dure Nayab and Sr. Margaret deYouville.
Dure Nayab is a student of Finance and Economics at Babson College, USA and LSE, Uk. Margaret deYouville is a nun at Sisters of Charity of Ottawa in Lesotho.
