We went to Mafetang district, considered to be the poorest of all the districts in Lesotho, with M’e Mamra, who is the our clinic’s nutritionist.  The malnutrition ward in Mafetang happened to be empty when we went (which was a good thing).  What we did see on our drive though, were beautiful stone gardens that were filled with green vegetables.  This was astonishing since Lesotho had a horrible drought this year and has just declared a state of emergency as a result.   An Onhono (grandmother) proudly showed us around her beautiful garden.  She said that she had enough food for her family of 5, and even was able to sell some left-overs.

M’e Mamra seemed to strongly believe that there was less malnutrition in Mafetang than Maseru due to these gardens. Lesotho is also the perfect place to implement these sort of gardens since the landscape is generally very dry.

A British NGO known as Stock Aid is responsible for teaching the villagers of Mafetang this agricultural technique.  They have also taught the people to make simple devices to solve the problem of having no running water and also how to build clay stoves in their homes and chimneys for these stoves.

So far, the gardens have only popped up in 1 or 2 districts.  But the gardens will hopefully spread to other regions as well.  The gardens would probably also work in urban areas such as Maseru since they only take up a small space.

Poster in the malnutrition ward.

Onhono showing off her garden:

Runner Water Contraption:

 Clay Stove with Chimney:

But they also had an electric stove:

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