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ISSUE 10 VOL. 8SEPT, 2021DISABILITY LESOTHOEditor’s noteI objectively need to congadulate people withdisabilities, the way you handled issues ofPersons with disabilities equity act; 2021.This shows a growth in advocating for yourrights, it is true that laws have been enactedin this country but it is my first time to hearpeople who are talking about the law thataffects them like you are doing.I think it will good for the Minister to do the rightIn light of the above, I would like to motivateyou all to do what is better for the benefit ofpeople with disabilities in this country.Remember we are not doing these for us butfor the generations to come.contact Pascalina Letsau on ( 266) 5905 5406 orIt is now the time that we all push harder tothe government through Ministry of SocialDevelopment to inaguarate the DisabilityAdvisory Council as it has been establishedby the act.thing, establish the council and review thedisability grant proposed.If you would like to contribute to the next issue orhave received this newsletter from a third partyand wish to be included on the mailing list pleasepletsau@gmail.comIf missed any edition please visitwww.lnfod.org.lsWe welcome any feedback that may improve thequality and content of this free service.Let us now advise and use all ways to do it sothat can advise the Minister accordingly toavoid all mistakes that we have already gotfrom different places or villages. Let us allwork hard until we leave the stone unturned.EditorC2 General
ISSUE 10 VOL. 8SEPT, 2021DIRECTOR’S CORNERDISABILITY GRANT FOR PERSONS WITH DISABILITIES IN LESOTHOprovide the grant to persons with disabilities as aBy Nkhasi Sefuthireducing poverty andotherThis paper assesses and analyses the progress means ofmade by government of Lesotho in providing vulnerabilities experienced by persons withDisability grant to persons with disabilities in disabilities.Lesotho. It seeks to understand the model used by However, this did not happen and governmentLesotho in providing this grant in comparison with struggled to put the grant in place ever since until2021 when Persons with Disability Equity Act wasthe United Nations standards.The paper concludes with the recommendations enacted with the provision of disability grant.advance to ensure proper assessment and In July 2021, Honourable Minister of Socialallocation of the disability grant to persons with Development made a public announcement thatthe Ministry is was preparing to provide socialdisabilities who meet the eligibility criteria.grant specific to persons with disability, (disabilityBackgroundIn the budget speech of 2021-2022, government of grant). The announcement stated that this was toLesotho allocated more than ten million Maloti to the fulfil the requirements of section 44 of the PersonsMinistry of Social Development to provide disability with Disability Equity Act which requiresgrant as a form of social protection to persons with government to give disability grant to persons withdisabilities who are in need of intensive support. disabilities outlined by the law.Para 137 of the budget speech clearly indicates the However, organisations of persons with disabilitiesintention of government to expand its social were disappointed by the medical approach whichprotection to persons with disabilities in an explicit the Ministry of Social Development take in dealingby with the provision of the grant as opposed to thepersons with disabilities in their interaction with Persons with Disability Equity Act.It is important to mention that, the new Act ofothers in society.The mention of disability grant in the government persons with disability no longer explains icy and strategy could be traced back to 2011 as something inherent in an individual, but aswhen the first ever disability specific policy, National external social, economic and political factorsDisability and Rehabilitation policy (2011) was which hinder effective participation of persons withadopted by cabinet of government of Lesotho as a disabilities in society. On the other hand medicalstrategy through which disability issues will be model states that disability is within a person andapproached and addressed. Some years later, the considers disability as a deviation from the normdisability grant was contained by the Ministry of and therefore should only be addressed throughsocial development social protection strategy in medical interventions and medical do have all theC2 Generalwhich government expressed its commitment toauthority to decide about a life of a person with
disability. This is confirmed by the understanding ofThis assumption is backed by the fact that, grantthe Ministry that disability can only be properly dealthas not yet been provided to persons withwith by the medical practitioners.disabilities despite several announcements madeIt is difficult to understand why government decidedthat, it would be provided from July, Septemberto adopt a medical approach in provision of the2021 and later it is being said that it will begrant yet the definition of disability in the lawprovided from next year.embraces social model. The social model considersIt is noteworthy to mention that Section 44 ofdisability as external social factors which should bePersons with Disability Equity Act on social grantaddressed through law and policy.derives its validity from article 28 of the UnitedIt is important to note that the public announcementNations Convention on the Rights of Persons withfor the provision of the grant was made threedisabilities (CRPD) which requires the state partiesmonths after the beginning of fiscal year. Meaningto provide social protection to persons withthe implementation of the grant was late already.disabilities. The article requires the state parties toLater no in September organisations of persons withput minimal standards for the provision of cashdisabilities and the Ministry came together to clarifytransfer and other social protection strategiesthe process and procedure of awarding a disabilityincluding by ensuring that the grants are meetinggrant since government was of the opinion that,adequate standard of living. The Lesotho disabilityorganisations of persons with disabilities are notis M400.00 per month and an individual gettingfully conversant with the disability grant, whilstthis grant, who is in need of care will get M150.00organisations of persons with disabilities stronglymore to cater for care services.believe that the medical approach and the socialassessment tool used by the Ministry would notOrganisations of persons with disabilities havecome out with the accurate results for a person withalready stated that, the grant does not meet thedisability because they are not disability inclusive.adequate standard of living considering theEver since government pronounced its intention toseverity of the vulnerabilities and barriers Basothoprovide disability grant, government officials havewith disabilities are encountering on daily basis.been working hard to design tools which they willuse to do the assessment for eligibility. However, itRecommendationsis argued that this was already too late because thegrant was to be provided from the beginning of fiscalIt is recommended that, the inputs of LNFOD onyear. Trainings have been conducted in fivethe social assessment tool be considered by theselected districts, and some persons with disabilitiesMinistry to ensure that the design and provision ofhave been registered with the aim that they wouldundergo a medical assessment which will determinetheir eligibility. This is taking more than it wasexpected, and government might be also using thefunds for the grant to cater for the logistics andadministrative needs of this project.the disability grant aligns with the disability dataC2 Generalstandards. Washington group questions can beused to design an appropriate tool for socialassessment of disability.
ISSUE 10 VOL. 8SEPT, 2021GENERAL NEWSFARMERS IN KHOELENYA GAINED NEW FARMING TECHNIQUES:By Rabasotho MoeletsiLesotho National Federation of Organisations ofthe Disabled (LNFOD) is running a four (4) yearprogram titled Gender and Disabilities in Practice- Lesotho with funding support from Diakonie ActAustria whose back-donor is the AustrianDevelopment Agency (ADA). One of the specificobjectives of this program is to improve economicliving conditions of women and girls withdisabilities in the programme region throughentrepreneurship, products manufacturing andbusiness management in order to enable them tobe productive citizens in the Lesotho’s economy.production in the coming weeks to take a tally toninety-three (93) women and girls who have wonthemselves a support under this programme to befunded to start their own small entrepreneurships.One of the trainees in the piggery production inKhoelenya community council hailed a training asan eyeopener. “We thank God who sent youLNFOD and our trainers (from Mekalingagricultural resource center) here to give us theimportant training for us. “Before we came here,we thought we knew everything about piggeryproduction since weIn recent weeks LNFOD, with the technicalsupport from Basotho Enterprise DevelopmentCooperation (BEDCO) and the Ministry ofAgriculture and Food Security (MoAFS) ResourceCenters have been equipping women withdisabilities with then necessary skills they will useto support their businesses. The ultimate goal isto prepare them to run their small businesseseffectively.Women and girls with disabilities from the districtsof Leribe, Berea, Maseru, Mafeteng andMohale’shoek in the councils where theprogramme works have been skilled onentrepreneurships of their choices. So far, a totalof seventy-three (73) women and girls have beenequipped with production skills in differentagricultural sectors. Fifty-four (54) have beentrained on poultry farming of which twenty-four(24) chose layers while thirty (30) are into broilerproduction. Ten (10) women from Mazenodcommunity council in Maseru have chosenshaded net cropping while latest nine (9) womenfrom Khoelenya community council in theMohale’shoek district have been capacitated inpiggery production. Preparations are in place forthe last groups to be trained on cream andpetroleum jelly production and dried fruitC2 Generalhave been rearing pigs before, we thought thetraining somehow would be a waste of time forus. We were all wrong, we knew nothing!”‘Matjotsane Moqeti said as post training remark.We never knew about these many farmingtechniques. We learnt about so many things wedidn’t know about, different breeds of pigs, andqualities of each breed, breeding, importance ofchoosing a right boar and gilts for breeding,documenting important dates in breeding,common diseases and management. All in all, thetraining has been nothing but an eyeopener to us,and we must make sure we practice everythingwe learnt here if we are serious about turning thisinto viable business,” ‘Matjotsane Moqeticoncluded “We are very pleased as the ministryto have added 9 new farmers to our list of
farmers in the area of Ha Makhabane in theMekaling Agricultural Resource Center,” y we celebrate because we got a very uniquegroup of farmers, so this is a special catch for us.We have other groups of farmers, the youth, thewomen and others but to train women withdisabilities as farmers has a special feeling in myheart since this is the first group. We During thesethree days working with them they showednothing but a commitment to becomeentrepreneurs in piggery farming, and we toldthem that it is possible if they put skills shared tothem into practice,” she added. Another addedadvantage coming out of these trainings was thestrengthened alliance that was bonded betweenLNFOD and ministry of Agriculture and foodsecurity. This was witnessed when the Agricresource center officers went beyond their scopeto capacitate women with disability farmers andalso made them beneficiaries among the farmerswho were earmarked for seeds at the centers. Itwas the first time that disability was targeted forthis provision.C2 General“This strengthened alliance building betweenLNFOD and ministry of Agriculture and foodsecurity will go a long way into achieving notonly the goals of this program but also thevision of LNFOD as a whole which seeks tosee disability mainstreamed into governmentservices and programing,” Moeletsi, ProjectCoordinator submitted.“Hoping this collaboration keep on growingwhich means sustainability of the program isalmost guaranteed as the government wouldalways be there even beyond facing out theprogram,” he concluded.
ISSUE 10 VOL. 8SEPT, 2021GENERAL NEWSGender and Disability Innovation Contest: Congratulations to NADL andIDAL!By: Makananelo L. RamoholiLNFOD is celebrating the National Association ofthe Deaf Lesotho (NADL) and the IntellectualDisability Association of Lesotho (IDAL) forwinning the innovation contest to design andimplement projects on gender and disabilitywithin their organizations. This comes afterLNFOD intensively capacitated its staff and thedisabled people’s organizations staff on genderand disability mainstreaming under the ongoingGender and Disability in Practice Project (GADIP)funded by Diakonne Act Austria. With the supportof four disabled people’s organizations genderand disability rights volunteers from the winningNADL and IDAL as well as those from theLesotho National League of the Visually ImpairedPersons (LNLVIP) and Lesotho NationalAssociation of the Physically Disabled (LNAPD),contested for an opportunity for funding to directlyimplement under their own organizations. Theidea of the contest is for disabled people’sorganizations to put in practice gender sensitiveinitiatives within their programming. The mainobjective behind the contest was to financiallyfacilitate gender equality measures and also tomotivate member DPOs to take up gender anddisability to develop ideas which might also befunded later on through other donors andpartners during the implementation of GADIP.The gender and disability projects implementedalongside GADIP will build surnergy with theongoing GADIP project to directly target specificgender and disability issues specific to IDAL andNADL. According to IDAL, the focus of theirprojectwillbetopromotedisabilitymainstreaming through promoting the inclusion ofpersons with intellectual disability especially inthe justice system. As expressed by the genderand disability volunteer (gender and disabilityprogramme officer), Ms. Mafumane Makhele; theproject will ensure that the stakeholders includingC2 Generalthe courts understand intellectual disability andvarious ways in which they can include suchpersons to ensure that they are equallyincluded in the justice system. She reiteratedthat persons with intellectual disabilities aredisproportionately affected by gender-basedviolence yet they are unlikely to obtain justiceas survivors than any other type of disabilitydue to communication barriers. On the otherhand, NADL implementing gender anddisability rights volunteer, Ms. ‘MatsepisoMokhoromeng, stated that their project targetscommunication barriers in the justice systemamong others. There are no sign languageinterpreters in the system to accommodatethose with speech and hearing disabilities whoare witnesses in the justice system. NADL willtherefore amongst others train the police onsign language interpretation so that it is easierto communicate with complainants. Under theGADIP, LNFOD will follow-up cases involvingpersons with disabilities who are survivors ofgender-based violence whose cases werestuck in the justice system due to lack ofaccommodations. With the support of the twoprojects, LNFOD will go far towards ensuringgender and disability inclusive society.
ISSUE 10 VOL. 8SEPT, 2021GENERAL NEWSLNAPD informs the Public about thecentre it is situated in the Maseru district,Masianokengandtheinstitutiononlypersons with disabilities equity act;accommodate people with disabilities from the2021ages of 18 years upwards, subjects offered atthe centre are carpentry, woodwork, welding,By: Sempe Moshoeshoesawing and agriculture, literacy, numeracy andLesotho National Association of the Physicallycomputer.(LNAPD) is on an outing in informing the publicThe third speakers elaborated on the Personsabout the disability Equity act of 2021.with disabilities equity act; 2021 where LesothoLNAPD visited 9 different districts which are Butha-signed the United Nations on the rights ofBothe, Mokhotlong and Thaba-Tseka, Mafeteng,persons with disabilities which Lesotho signed inMohale’shoek, Quthing, Berea, Qacha’snek and2008. He indicated that the act established theLeribe respectively. The aim of this outreach toursDisability Advisory Council but update it has notwas to inform the Public about the act which camebeen inaugurated and it’s not working. Mr. Moliseinto law on the 12th of March 2021. On the list weFoso elaborated more about the rights ofstarted at Berea then followed other districtspersons with disabilities and looked again whatrespectively until ended in Thaba-Tseka, where wehas been enshrined in the constitution of Lesothowere welcomed by the area chiefs, and peopleby chapter 2, specifically on rights to education,came in their numbers to hear what the act has inemployment and he expanded on the securitystore for them.reforms saying that people with disabilities areThe first speaker was the Chairperson of thecapable of being deployed in the security sector.Association Pascalina Letsau who gave a key noteThe last issue on the table was about disabilityaddress and brief summary of why LNAPD hasgrantvisited them and the aim of their visit to places likegovernment where government through ministrythat. She told people who were gathered there thatof social development decided to offer peoplethewith disabilities a grant of M400.00 selective,associationwas formedbypeoplewithphysically disabled themselves, because they saw ns were formed.The second speaker was a member of theassociation Mr. Motseko who gave a brief detailsabout education barriers to people with physicaldisabilities, those leads to the association toestablish a vocational school to cater for people withdifferent disabilities except for the visually impairedonce because the school does not offer braillessons, he again mention subjects that are offeredC2 Generalat the centre. The school is Itjareng vocationalforpersonswithdisabilitieswherebecause the grants categorized in three differenttypes of the grant. Indicated that doctors have toexamine and stated the severity of the disabilityof each applicant if is eligible for the grant or not,then government will give such a person thegrant, when getting people’s views on how muchshould one get they said M400.00 is too little atleast if the start with M1, 000.00 to M2, 000 it willbe enough for their needs.
ISSUE 10 VOL. 8SEPT, 2021ADVOCACY ASPECTDisability Grant BluesBy: ‘Makatleho ‘MolotsiThis is due to the fact that contrary to the letterand spirit of Persons with Disabilities Equity Actthe design of the grant follows the old medicalmodel of disability as opposed to the socialmodel provided for by the law.The Ministry of Social Development has beenapplauded and celebrated much within thedisability community in Lesotho. This wasbecause of the two milestone the Ministry hasever achieved in the promotion of the rights ofpeople with disabilities in Lesotho. In March thisyear the Ministry enacted Persons withDisabilities Equity Act which domesticates theUnited Nations Convention on the rights ofPersons with disabilities. This act sets a bedrockthat strengthen the protection of the rights ofpeople with disabilities in Lesotho. To furtherpromote the rights of people with disabilitiesMinistry of Social Development budgeted for thefirst issuance of types of Disability grant whichmagnified the celebrations of the Ministry.However, People with disabilities were notinvolved during the design of the grant whichraised concerns from the disabled communitythat the grant might not empower people withdisabilities as intended and that it may not evenreceived by the severely disabled as it is theintention. This continued to be the DPOs concernafter the design of the grant was presented tothe, DPOs pointed that the design of the grantpoints to the fact that the recipients of the grantshall be the severely impaired as opposed to theseverely disabled.C2 GeneralWhile assessment tools are currently beingaligned with the social model of disability inorder to assess the severity of disability byDPOs and the MSoD, registration for disabilitygrant is continuing in some communitycouncils. People with disability have reportedthat based on their appearance they are deniedto apply for the grant on the basis that they arenot severely disabled. They are told that theyhave to be on wheelchairs and on crutches atleast. This means that an opportunity to applyfor the grant is given to those who are visiblyseverely impaired as opposed to disabled.People with disability have also reported thatthe officials of the Ministry who areadministering applications for the disabilitygrant demand that they bring their severelyimpaired family members to the communitycouncils so that the officials verify that thosefamily members are indeed severely disabled.From the reports it appears that noassessments are made except the visualassessments of whether someone is severelyimpaired. There is a cry within the disabilitycommunity that the long awaited disability grantwill not be received by the deserving severelydisabled people as promised due to lack oftransparency. It is indeed clear that disabilitygrant has left the disabled community blue.
ISSUE 10 VOL. 8SEPT, 2021UPCOMING EVENTSOctober 11-14 training of women26-27 October training of thewith disabilities on production ofnew gender and disabilitypetroleum jelly and vaselin byadvocacy task teamSMARDTFor more information please contact LNFODoffice on 266 22320345 or send an email;For more information please contact LNFOD officemasekara@lnfod.org.lson 266 22320345 or send an email;moeletsi@lnfod.org.ls18 October policy brief for OPDS ongender and disability inclusion.Radpid assessment on teachingand learning materials forlearners with disabilitiesongoing.For more information please contact LNFOD officeon 266 22320345 or send an email;nkhasi@lnfod.org.lsC2 GeneralFor more information please contact LNFODoffice on 266 22320345 or send an email;nkhasi@lnfod.org.ls
SEPT, 2021ISSUE 10 VOL. 8PARTNERS in Advocacy WorkC2 General
The mention of disability grant in the government policy and strategy could be traced back to 2011 when the first ever disability specific policy, National Disability and Rehabilitation policy (2011) was adopted by cabinet of government of Lesotho as a strategy through which disability issues will be approached and addressed.
