What is Sentebale Doing to Help?

Senetebale provides financing and management to grass roots organizations in Lesotho working to solve the country's problems.  They work alongside community organisations helping them establish management systems so they will be able to remain active into the future and deliver the best support possible to the children they help.  They combine aid giving with business like investing as a way to ensure that their funds really make a difference to the community.  The key areas that Senetebale works to improve are child and orphan care, health care, education and special needs children.

Senetbale works to provide funding and management to many local organization specializing in caring for the children in Lesotho.  Projects Sentebale supports are Mants'ase Children's Home, Semongkong Children's Centre, Pulane Children's Home, Reitumetse Church Project and Touching Tiny Lives.  In one way or another these organizations provide a safe place for orphans and vulnerable children, Touching Tiny Lives even provides care and support for babies affect by the HIV/AIDs pandemic.  It is because of these organizations that the orphans and vulnerable children of Lesotho receive the safety and resources that every human child deserves.

 Sentebale also supports Momohato Network and Camps.  They provide support for children who have tested HIV positive and must receive treatments.  The main focus of the camps is to increase the children's self esteem and teach them how to live a healthy life with HIV.  At the camps children play games, sports, arts and crafts and drama as well as education on hygiene, nutrition, and how to live successfully with HIV.  Over 336 children have received support from these camps.  The camps are run by trained staff and professionals as well as doctors, nurses and clinics to aid in the children's treatment.  As the children grow older they are not forgotten about by the camp and can participate in Teen Clubs, Caregiver Days and Camp Reunions.  The Momohato Network and Camps is fully funded and managed by Sentebale and has changed the lives of many children living with HIV.

In Lesotho there is a tradition where young boys looking to provide for their families can become Herd Boys where they spend months and sometimes years away in the mountains tending to cattle and in exchange for their work they receive a cow for their family.  While they are their they endure harsh weather and poor living conditions, they are also forced to end their education to take the time to go away.  Herd Boys are a part of the culture of Lesotho but it is depriving the children of the education they are entitled to.  Sentebale supports programs that provide night school for these boys if they wish to finish their education.  Around 60 boys make the 2 hour freezing trek to reach these schools and the dedication they show towards their learning is outstanding.  In the winter months when temperatures in the mountains drop far below freezing the schools do not only provide them with their education but also with warm meal as well as warm clothes and blankets to keep them as warm as possible while they work.  This program is allowing more children to receive their education and break out of the poverty cycle.

 Sentebale funds and manages multiple care centres which specifically help the physically and mentally disabled.  These are the Kananelo Centre for the Deaf, Morapeli School, Phelisanong Project, St. Angela's Home for the Physically Disabled, St. Bernadette's Resource Centre for the Blind, St. Paul's School for the Deaf and Thuos Centre for Multiple Disabilities.  The disabled population is one that often goes by unnoticed especially in third world countries where they often do not have access to the care they need.  There are 50, 000 disabled children in Lesotho and only 1,200 are receiving the specialized care that they need.  By supporting these projects Sentebale has really helped make a difference in the lives of many disabled children, given them a chance and proper support when otherwise they would have been ignored.

By providing funding and management to local grass roots organizations all over Lesotho, Sentebale has changed the lives of many children forever and helped them break out of the cycle of poverty.