Lean Times in Lesotho

By Debbie DeVoe

When your country experiences severe drought conditions like Lesotho did in 2006 and 2007, you get to know hunger. When your country fails to have one day of rain in an entire year, you learn to live with hunger. And when rising global food prices add to an existing food crisis, few can escape hunger.

"The rise in food prices is really hitting people in Lesotho hard. People don't have enough food to support their families," explains Mochekoane Mohlerepe, Catholic Relief Services' human resources manager in Lesotho. "For the average worker, after buying food, their salary is gone before month's end. They then need to borrow money and go into debt."

Overstretched Budgets

Low rainfall and high food prices are impacting almost all of Lesotho's population of around 2 million people. With close to one in four people living with HIV, the AIDS pandemic is further impacting the country's ability to produce sufficient food.

"More than 45 percent of Lesotho's population are unemployed, so when crops fail or food prices rise, families are hard pressed to buy enough food for their daily needs," explains John Shumlansky, CRS' country representative in Lesotho.

Take a typical CRS employee. A cleaning woman earns around $300 a month and uses close to half of that — $130 — on food. "Since I now use most of my money to buy food, I can no longer visit my home village and family members as much as I did in the past," adds Mantebaleng Phori, CRS office assistant and housekeeper.

Most cleaning staff in Lesotho, however, earn $150 or less a month. After food purchases, little is left for other household expenses, including medical and school fees.

According to the Central Bank of Lesotho, overall food prices have escalated by 15 percent since March 2006. From January to April 2007, prices increased for bread and cereals by 23.6 percent. "We are phasing out an emergency food relief project this month, and an elderly lady literally cried, asking when we would return because she has nowhere to get food," notes Aletta Mpheta, CRS' food relief technical officer in Lesotho.

Nearing the Breaking Point

When rains failed to come from 2006 to 2007, CRS received funding from the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and the United Nations World Food Program to distribute emergency food rations and develop drought-resistant, productive gardening activities for families most in need. These programs are winding down, in hopes that this year's harvest will produce sufficient food. Early cold snaps are a concern though.

CRS has also been working with families supporting orphans and other vulnerable children to build "keyhole gardens," small, nutrient-rich plots that help increase the amount of food grown, as well as community trench gardens. These small measures help, but they may not be enough.

"Like most employed people in Lesotho, I have some extended family members I look after in addition to my immediate family. Nowadays, it's difficult for me to balance who to help, because the money I'm setting aside for their food is no longer enough for all of them," says Bartholomew Mofolisa, a technical officer for CRS Lesotho's water projects. "I don't use my private car to come to work anymore because of the high prices of petrol. If I use public transportation, I can save the money to buy more food."

Debbie DeVoe is Catholic Relief Services' regional information officer in east Africa.