A box of condoms on the customs desk at the Maputsoe Bridge border crossing in Lesotho. All photos by the author.
Scores of international agencies and NGOs are engaged in the country's battle with HIV, assisting a government that has been lauded for its determined approach to tackling the epidemic despite also struggling with grinding poverty, food insecurity, and other medical emergencies—such as one of the highest tuberculosis infection rates in the world.READ MORE: These Teenagers' Science Project Discovery Could Revolutionise Global Crop Production
Lesotho's mountainous geography makes farming difficult.
A corn field in the northern district of Berea.
Ntswaki Matabe with her keyhole garden.
A keyhole garden in Sefikaneng.
Maleteane Kome stands with her husband Kome Kome outside their traditional Basotho hut.
Ntswaki Matabe sits on the front step of her bungalow with her keyhole garden out front.
According to Ian McKay, program director at Send a Cow, the organization has witnessed major improvements in the quality of diets in communities where it has worked over the past decade, while so-called "hunger months" during which people have barely enough food to eat adequately have been reduced—something he says is vital to people accessing antiretroviral therapy.The small incomes these gardens and other farming techniques can generate also yield results that go beyond nutrition.READ MORE: These Teenagers' Science Project Discovery Could Revolutionise Global Crop Production