Project sustainability from local leadership - Sepheo in Lesotho

Founders Josh & Belinda Groves share how imperative local team members are to Sepheo;

From the outset, the foundation of Sepheo has been that it is run and led locally. The right local staff have always arrived at the right time- people who are called for their role, passionate about making change and anointed for their purpose. Basotho are far more effective in their own culture than we can ever be. Our job has been to support our team from behind, identifying strengths and looking for opportunities that will stretch and grow them. Due to COVID, our physical proximity to the team has changed, but their leadership has not. They have stood out in the community for the way they rapidly and comprehensively adapted to the need. Within two days of lockdown being announced, our team personally delivered soap to 5,000 homes in our village- on foot. They negotiated with shop owners to operate free hand washing stations all throughout the village. They took time to explain COVID to the elderly and those without access to radios. They listened to understand what else was needed. After lockdown, they managed to shift our entire operations to the phone overnight. Delivering school work to all our students weekly, they conducted lessons telephonically to every child, ensuring kids remained home and did not return to the streets. If a child didn’t have a phone, they negotiated with neighbours. They found a way. They delivered regular food parcels to each family and, taking note of the growing desperation that surrounded the families we knew, began pressing for a larger solution to community starvation. They have now negotiated a mass food distribution strategy with 33 local area chiefs to support nearly 35,000 people affected by lockdown.

Sepheo’s success has always depended upon Basotho leadership. In response to this emergency, Sepheo’s reach and influence has multiplied at the leading of capable, passionate Basotho.