LENASO has a vast experience of about 9 years in working on GBV projects in collaboration with MOH, Ministry of Gender Sports and Recreation (MGSR) Police Child and Gender Protection Unit (CGPU) and other relevant stakeholders. Some of the projects that were specifically implemented on GBV included LETLAMA project, Be WISE project and Sexual Exploitation and Abuse (SEA) consultancy by the ministry of Public Works and Transport through the Roads Directorate. LETLAMA project was implemented from 2013 to 2015 and aimed to improve the health of Basotho people by reducing the incidence of HIV infection through the promotion of social behavior change and support for healthier social norms among young people aged 15-24 and adults aged 25-35 in Maseru, Leribe, Mafeteng and Qacha’s Nek. Specific focus on GBV issues was to promote gender equity, participatory development and community action for behaviour change. The project engaged men and women to explore how gender norms affect their lives either positively and negatively and how to make them more equitable. LENASO implemented LETLAMA project by engaging in community dialogues using ‘Ha re bua’ toolkit meant to bring about behavior change through learning from other people life stories. There were life profiles shared in videos where the participants could watch and discuss in focus groups on how the social norms, habits and GBV affect them differently in their families and villages. The education includes awareness on definition of GBV, why does it happen and how should it be prevented, reporting and referral system as well as the information on service providers. LENASO is working with different groups of people and authorities in the communities to raise awareness on importance of gender equity. LENASO implements the gateway approach to address social barriers in reporting GBV hence more buy-in and ownership by the community authorities. This buy-in is used to support enabling health gender norms and gender equity. Having learned from different projects implemented by the organization, LENASO has been able to innovatively engage and consider gender equity in programming from the design unto implementation and evaluation of the projects. Currently chiefs and councilors are trained in GBV and SEA as well as HIV.
BE WISE was the HIV and TB prevention programme that incorporated human rights and law enforcement. Its objective was to provide a comprehensive HIV and TB prevention package and gender and human rights laws awareness raising sessions focusing on couples, women and men of child bearing age and PLHIV. LENASO developed the training manual called Be Wise Positive Living Manual in collaboration with the Ministry of Health. Through SBCC sessions held in different homes, LENASO managed to reach 92,921 individuals with messages and GBV referrals were made to relevant service providers such as Police, Paralegals and Chiefs for action. The referrals included property related cases, domestic violence, right to access ART and other gender-based violence issues.
LENASO is currently engaged as a consultant by Roads Directorate under World Bank fund from June 2019 to 2023 to raise awareness on Sexual Exploitation and Abuse (SEA), Gender Based Violence and HIV&AIDS mainstreaming. The aim is to improve on prevention and response on identified communities of places where foot bridges’ construction and roads maintenance works are being done. LENASO has developed a training manual that is used to conduct formal trainings for construction company Managers, labourers, community Liaison Committees as well as community dialogues and focused group discussions for communities at large. Having realized that due to socio-economic factors, sexual exploitation and GBV are accelerated where there are ongoing projects. The aim is to give basic understanding on Sexual Exploitation and GBV, how to prevent it and how to respond accordingly if it occurs at work and around communities affected by construction. The response includes reporting, referrals, linkages to relevant services for survivors and justice to prevent GBV.
