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In the rugged terrain of Lesotho’s uplands, farmers raise sheep and goats for their wool, supplying an important national industry and providing a major export. But without information, better organization and basic infrastructure, small-scale sheep and goat farmers are unable to lift themselves out of a subsistence existence and obtain better prices for their wool. In addition to building woolsheds in remote areas, an IFAD-funded programme is training farmers in improved animal health as well as care and management of the grasslands their herds feed on. Thanks to these inputs, farmers should soon be getting substantially better prices for their wool in the marketplace.

Government of Lesotho and IFAD join hands to improve household food security and nutrition status of the rural poor people in the three mountain of Lesotho.

Dr. Mphu Ramatlapeng, CHAI's country director in Lesotho, talks about what aspects of her work she finds inspiring.

It was a highly significant milestone in Lesotho’s national fight against HIV and AIDS when, for the first time, a network of people living openly with the  pandemic, was launched in the capital, Maseru, on the 27 th of May 2005.

THABA TSEKA, Lesotho, 22 December, 2004 – At first glance Katlehong Primary School in the mountainous village of Thaba Tseka seems like any other school of its kind. The children skip, chase each other and jump around at break time as children do everywhere else in the world.

The most impressive building in this quiet village tucked away in the Maluti Mountains in Lesotho stands in sharp contrast to the shabbier grey dwellings dotted along dirt roads. Set on lush rolling lawns with luxury limos in its grand garage, it has to be the best – if not the only – hotel in town, or so you think until you drive closer.

Lieketsemg, eleven years old, is standing in front of the truck that brings this monthly food ration to herself, her older brother and her grandmother, with whom she lives. Lieketsemg's parents died "a long time ago". How many years ago she does not know, as she was too young to remember.

The children at Katlehong primary school in their green uniforms look like other rural kids in southern Africa, but these children are different – the boys and girls here have lost one or both parents to HIV/AIDS.

7 October 2002, HA RAPHIRI - This is an ordinary day for Khoali, 12. He has walked the 10-kilometres from school to his home: an empty, single-room house with no running water or electricity, no mother or father.

7 October 2002, MASERU - You don't need to visit Lesotho's unplowed fields to see the real impact of the drought. This national disaster is all too evident in the faces and tragic stories of ordinary people.

The only food we receive is from WFP. Without it, I would have to beg for help from my friends but most of them have nothing to eat, either (Mahlomola Monaheng).