Help Lesotho

Help Lesotho is a mental health NGO igniting hope and resilience in Lesotho’s young people. Registered in Canada and Lesotho, local staff in Lesotho deliver grassroots mental health support and life skills training programs in rural communities. Our approach is rooted in empowering the people of Lesotho to help themselves as they navigate challenges and help build thriving families and communities. Over the last 21 years, more than 300,000 people have engaged with Help Lesotho's work to foster resilience, reduce the spread of HIV, and curb gender-based violence.

Help Lesotho was founded by Dr. Peg Herbert in 2004 (Executive Director 2004-2023). Herbert’s work in Lesotho, Southern Africa, has gained international attention in highlighting the plight of the Basotho people, dealing with HIV/AIDS, poverty, access to education, mental health support, and gender equity issues.

Our vision is that the youth of Lesotho to have the agency and resilience to create healthy and self-sustaining futures.

The reason for Help Lesotho's work: HIV/AIDS decimated a generation, fractured families, and left a massive cohort of children and youth broken and vulnerable. Help Lesotho was established to ensure they know they are not alone. A similar cycle is repeating itself now as the parental generation moves to South Africa in search of work, leaving their children behind to fend for themselves. When families are in survival mode (coping with poverty, HIV/AIDS, gender-based violence, hopelessness), young people miss out on the support structures that typically instill life skills.

Help Lesotho reaches over 25,000 rural beneficiaries annually. Over 58,000 youth, grandmothers, herd boys, young mothers, girls, police officers, health workers, local councilors, and villagers have graduated from our intensive programs, contributing to our goal of creating a critical mass of alumni who have the self-awareness, life skills and support to move forward with their lives in increasingly healthier ways and become agents of social change. We operate two community centres and village-based programming in under-served rural areas. Help Lesotho is committed to sustainability. We have 20+ years of delivering programs in the same rural communities through a mutually reinforcing generational approach (meeting the needs of various demographics).

Our work is classified within three main program areas:

1. Heal-Learn-Grow Programs equip participants with the building blocks they need to bounce back from challenges, make informed decisions, and restore hope.
2. Brighter Futures Programs addresses gaps faced by youth in their pursuit of a sustainable livelihood.
3. Leaders4Change Programs seeks to address harmful social practices while empowering participants as responsible leaders for change while wrking in partnership with families, community members, and community influencers.

All Help Lesotho programs and projects are directly delivered by a team of 40 talented Basotho staff, most of whom are graduates of Help Lesotho's programs.

Help Lesotho’s Canadian team, headquartered in Ottawa, support program content development, ongoing capacity building, financial oversight and international fundraising.

Help Lesotho's current strategic goals include:

• Scale up our visibility and impact in the area of mental health. Help Lesotho intends to leverage its twenty years of experience and reputation, proven materials and skilled staff to position itself not only as a ‘thought leader’ for the delivery of psychosocial support to vulnerable populations but as a specialist in building resilience for improved mental health and decision making.
• Increase partnerships and foster increased local partner cooperation and coordination. There is tremendous opportunity to improve the impact and sustainability of development initiatives in Lesotho with increased communication, resource-sharing and inspiration across organizations.
• Prioritize deepening the impact for the 25,000 people we reach each year. Help Lesotho aims to respond to the evolving needs of the people our existing programs are designed to reach by incorporating new topics and projects that support skill development and self-sufficiency. We are committed to deepening impact over growing the number of people reached.