Alyx Beckwith: Orphan & HIV/AIDS Work in Lesotho, Africa

Alyx on right.
Alyx Beckwith works with the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) on a joint project with the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the UN World Food Progam (WFP) to improve the livelihoods of orphan and vulnerable children in the Mafeteng District in Lesotho, Southern Africa. She’s been working on the project since September.
Alyx emailed me her answers to my questions. Here’s Alyx…

Can you talk about your work with the UN?
I am working as a Fellow on a collaborative UN project which aims to both improve the livelihoods of orphans and HIV/AIDS-affected children, as well as, enhance the capacity of the community to deal with the orphan crisis. The project works in partnership with relevant community-based organizations, local NGOs, and governmental bodies to implement interventions in the areas of food and nutrition security, health, education, and social welfare. In my capacity as a Fellow, I am partnered with a “Local Fellow� who is a nutritionist with the Ministry of Agriculture. Together, we develop, implement, and monitor income-generating projects for village community groups caring for orphans and vulnerable children. Additionally, we organize nutrition and HIV/AIDS workshops which disseminate information and encourage participants (village leaders and those volunteering to care for their neighbors) to pass on the knowledge. These “train the trainer workshops� in the project’s targeted communities are facilitated by local public health professionals, nutritionists, police officers, people living openly with HIV/AIDS, etc. Topics include the link between nutrition and HIV, basic HIV prevention and treatment information, violence against women and child abuse in the community, prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV, home-based care for the terminally ill, nutritional instruction for people living with HIV/AIDS, etc.
How many citizens of Lesotho would you say are working with you on this project? Does the UN work to make sure the people of Lesotho have the opportunity to work on a project that is supposed to benefit them?
The staff of the project itself is quite small. In addition to myself, there are four Basotho (citizens of Lesotho) and a citizen of Swaziland on staff. However, the project works with about 10 implementing partner organizations (NGOs, CBOs [Community Based Organizations], and governmental bodies), all of whom employ Basotho. I am really the only non-African working on the Project.
Do the people of the Mafeteng District have any input in this FAO project?
Very much so. In fact, one of the major objectives of the project is to adopt a collaborative approach and to engage members of the community so that the interventions are those the community needs and will support. The project conducted surveys and studies to assess the situation on the ground in the district and to listen to the people about what their needs were with regard to improving livelihoods. The severe impact of the orphan crisis on the district makes progress slightly hard to determine, as there are newly orphaned children each time we visit a given village.
Can you describe the Mafeteng District in Lesotho? Its social demographics, types of labor, highest rated illnesses, and how the average person lives? And why this project is focused in this district?
Mafeteng District is a poor and very dry district in the lowlands of Lesotho. It is said that the project is piloted in this district because it has the highest registered number or orphans in the country. Lesotho also reportedly has the highest number of orphans in the world. Orphan registration only began in some areas earlier this year, so I’m not sure if the statistics may actually be significantly higher.
Unemployment in Mafeteng District is quite high and there are few job opportunities available. Many villages rely on farming, but due to the low rainfall, there is little income derived from the sale of crops. It is for this reason that the project has implemented bio-intensive agricultural methods (such as double-dug beds, permaculture, and “keyhole gardens,� which are household-size gardens containing mulch, compost, and old tin cans which oxidize the soil and stand approximately four feet tall so that they are easier for the elderly and ill to tend) in the targeted villages.
For employment, many men in Mafeteng leave their homes to go work in the mines in South Africa. This leaves the women at home to plant the gardens, raise the children, and care for sick neighbors and their orphans. Additionally, many women leave the rural villages either to work in South Africa or to work at the garment factories in the bigger towns. I can’t speak much to this, because I have had few encounters with factory workers myself, but I can say that the end of the WTO’s [World Trade Organization] quotas on textile imports in 2005 has led to the closing of a large number of factories in Lesotho, as rich countries choose to import from China.
In terms of diseases, HIV/AIDS is the major problem, complicated largely by co-infection with tuberculosis. Death unfortunately has become a major element of daily life in Lesotho, with the central market in Mafeteng town comprised mostly of coffin-makers and the existence of funerals every weekend. Truthfully, the omnipresence of death can be depressing, but by focusing on HIV education, treatment information, and encouraging proper nutrition, Lesotho can turn things around, I think.
What is the probability that a child living in the Mafeteng District in Lesotho will be an orphan at some point in his/her childhood?
I am not quite sure about the probability. But, I do know that amongst a national population of 1.8 million, there are according to the more modest statistics from UNICEF, approximately 150,000 orphans in Lesotho. The only thing to keep in mind when discussing orphans in Southern Africa is that most statistics consider an orphan to be a child who has lost one parent. Thus, of the 200,000 orphans, the numbers must be further broken down to show “double orphans� who have lost both parents and “single orphans� who have one parent still living. Whatever the numbers, the situation is dire. And what’s more is that the traditional structures and ways of dealing with the orphan situation are being completely overwhelmed.
Typically, an orphaned child would be taken in by a grandparent or an aunt or neighbor. However, today, communities are simply inundated with orphan children and relatives and community members cannot tend to all, leaving many children to run their households alone. I recently met an older widowed man who was maybe in his 70s. He told me that his son and daughter-in-law had passed away leaving three children and that his daughter and her husband had also passed away, leaving four children. He was raising these seven children in his two-room house and had little money to feed them, let alone to send them to school. Others who are not capable or willing to take care of so many children, simply leave the children to care for themselves. This creates many other problems, as children living alone are extra vulnerable to sexual and physical abuse, property seizure, and being forced to drop out of school in order to earn money.
Do the livelihoods of young girls differ from young boys in this particular district of Lesotho? Are girls more likely to be orphaned or boys? What particular challenges do boys and girls face?
Lesotho is one of the few African countries in which more young girls attend school than young boys. This is due to the fact that many young boys are forced to become “herd boys� (shepherds), roaming the surrounding areas with a handful of sheep or cows for meager wages from the owner of the animals. Orphaned boys are particularly vulnerable to becoming herd boys and forgoing the chance to attend school.
I have been told that young girl orphans are more likely to be taken in and given a home due to the practice of lobola, bride price paid by the groom’s family upon marriage. When an orphan girl is of age, the foster parents can request lobola from the groom.
I also would add that I am continually impressed and inspired by the strength of women in Lesotho. They work so very hard, carrying, raising, supporting, healing, etc. They are truly amazing and deserve much more credit than they typically receive. In addition to normal life tasks, women in Lesotho are much more vulnerable to HIV infection than men, both socially and biologically. This is a severe problem and one which we are trying to tackle in our work.
Do you think Americans hold misperceptions about poverty and children’s poverty in southern Africa? For one, unfortunately many Americans do not see Africa as a continent of diverse geographic regions, cultures, and challenges.
I personally think that there are many misconceptions about poverty in Africa and that many of us in the rich world do not acknowledge the structural impediments to relieving poverty, such as trade imbalances, the lack of transparency and accountability of the international financial institutions (World Bank, IMF [International Monetary Fund], etc.), the reduction of budgetary allotments in the health and education sectors that many countries were forced to enact during the structural adjustment programs of the 1980s and ‘90s, etc.
What is your average workday like?
It is hard to say, because really every day is different. I usually meet up with my counterpart (the Local Fellow) around 7:30 or 8. We may go into the office to draft proposals for future workshops or income-generating activities or we may run all over town getting price quotations for items needed for our projects (the UN requires three price quotations before we can buy anything, this is a practice which I must say is culturally out of place, but really is an efficient way to save money!). Other days, we are out in various villages, meeting with caretakers, preparing for our workshops, or conducting assessment surveys of clinics or schools to understand what information is needed at future workshops. Occasionally, I travel an hour and a half by public transport to Maseru, the capital city to take care of necessary business at UN headquarters.
What cultural differences, if any, were difficult for you to adjust to?
Hmm, well, none that I can explain over email (Sorry!). They would come out sounding petty or strange! I would say that it is a bit difficult adjusting to the slowed down pace of work in a peri-urban setting, especially coming from New York! It’s also hard because you see so many potential projects, but each one takes a while to coordinate due to a slower turnaround time with paperwork and such. But, all in all, I am awed by many people I work with, their hard work, determination, and undying good spirit when dealing with difficult situations.
What lessons do you think many Americans could learn from a day spent in the Mafeteng District of Lesotho?
I do think that in the U.S., we waste a lot. And by that I mean water, electricity, plastic, food, etc. Living as one of few people in town to have both running water and electricity, I have definitely learned to conserve more of both and to be grateful for the existence of both. Also, not having a refrigerator, I have learned to save food and not to cook more than I am going to eat. These may sound like small things, but it’s more about the mindset of conservation that I think is important. Additionally, I think that in the U.S., we have to be mindful not only of poverty in Africa, but the existence of poverty in our own communities. One thing that I have observed having lived in both South Africa and Lesotho, is that living in poverty in the existence of extreme wealth is psychologically different from living in poverty in a more equal society. Additionally, I think that we as Americans must keep in mind that Africans are not victims of poverty but are resourceful, strong, nurturing people who though fighting epidemics, conflicts, and poverty are human and no different from those of us in rich countries. The peoples of Africa have many rich cultures and Americans need to pay more attention to this continent and its people, not only to bemoan the tragedies and shake our heads at the sadness, but to learn of its diverse peoples and beautiful lands.
How long will you be staying in Lesotho? Do you have more international work planned?
I am not quite sure how much longer I will be here. My contract ends in February and I am awaiting news of a potential to renew. I definitely want to continue to work internationally and am considering working in South Africa for a month or two as an intern with an amazingly influential South African HIV/AIDS advocacy organization called the Treatment Action Campaign, and would like to return to that country to learn more from the great activists there. I also want to return to school to pursue a PhD in anthropology to further examine some of the issues I am dealing with here. For instance, I am really interested in studying efforts to form collaboration between traditional healers (sangoma) and the medical establishment or public health system. The divide between the two presents many unnecessary and potentially dangerous choices for people seeking care and treatment in many parts of Southern Africa.