Housing Poverty In Lesotho

Under this programme, we construct simple yet durable two-room houses with concrete blocks and corrugated iron sheets roofs. A ventilated pit latrine is constructed to improve sanitation.

Additionally, our local team advocates for secure land tenure. We initiate land ownership processes for the households to ensure they legally own the land before we build a house for them - so as to avoid any risk of eviction in the future. Local authorities, including the land administration authority, local councils and chiefs working with Habitat Lesotho are instrumental in assisting these households to legally own land wherever we build.

Since our goal is to transform communities, beneficiary families and their communities are further empowered through various trainings. Trainings on health, hygiene, home maintenance and inheritance rights are provided to all beneficiary families served through our projects and, in many cases, to community members who may not have been direct beneficiaries of the house.

House maintenance trainings ensure that the houses provide long-term shelter for the families.

The knowledge gained through the inheritance rights training has seen an increased number of wills registered in various Habitat projects. It also safeguards the family's interests, leading to reduced cases of property grabbing and evictions in the unfortunate event of death of orphans' or vulnerable children's carers.

In all interventions, we work closely with the Government of Lesotho, development partners and NGOs as well as local organisations to address needs of vulnerable families that often extend beyond the need for decent shelter. This way, an all-round approach to addressing the needs is adopted while ensuring community ownership of projects is prioritised.